Plant a Seed … Read! holding raffle

Plant a Seed … Read! is holding its third annual cash raffle.

“Our cash raffle is our major fundraiser for our program that we have every year,” local Plant a Seed … Read! treasurer Shaylan Verploegen said.

500 tickets are available, she said.

Tickets are $20 each.

People who would like to purchase a raffle ticket can contact Verploegen at 945-3668 or at Triple Dog Brewing Co. or ask for Sandy Wilson at NAPA Auto Parts — North Central Auto Parts in Havre.

The 500th ticket drawn will be the grand prize winner, Verploegen said, adding that the grand prize is $1,500 cash.

She said the drawing will not be held at Triple Dog Brewing Co. because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The date of the drawing will be determined at a later date, she added.

She said Triple Dog Brewing Co. will also be hosting two Pint Nights for the program’s at a later date.

“This fundraiser is to help get the books in the hands of the children who are on our waiting list,” she said. “Those children who don’t have the sponsors to pay for their books every year.”

Verploegen said they have 369 children enrolled in the Plant a Seed program at this time, and another 218 are on the waiting list, which means those children are sponsored through grants and other donors.

“Plant a Seed ... Read! is a proactive non-profit. We try to intervene before challenges arise, before they start school,” Plant a Seed ... Read! North-Central Montana Executive Program Director Lorraine Verploegen said. “Being a nonprofit, we were able to bring in the Imagination Library from the Dollywood Foundation and these are age-appropriate books that children can receive free of charge to families once a month and stimulates bonding, language, vocabulary — gets them to think beyond the story or connect with their own experiences when they read aloud.”