PROJECT GRADUATION 2009

Our lucky night! With both the first AND second place tickets, Tom and Sandra Araya had the big prize well in hand! The 2010 grads of Buffalo High School can look forward to a big celebration on graduation night, thanks to the community's generous response at the Project Graduation Steak Dinner on Saturday evening. The annual event, held at the junior high gym/cafeteria, was well attended and guests enjoyed a delicious meal by It's Catered and a plethora of desserts provided by the seniors' moms. Throughout the ticket pulling period there were auctions and drawings for a large number of prizes donated by local merchants.

The big draw, of course, was the prize money at stake. All 250 chances had been sold, buying each ticketholder two dinners and one chance at the $10,000 grand prize that would go to the final ticket in the tumbler.

The Eliminators (emcees Gene Pruitt, Jr. and Jeff Ryder) were greeted by good-natured moans as they pronounced the names drawn from the hopper. A few tickets were partial winners, thanks to supportive merchants. Troy Brown won $50 donated by Buffalo Sporting Goods, and Sam Beard got $50 from The Horse's Mouth. Dentists Fahler and Hiels gave $100 for the 100th name drawn, which was that of Trina Varner. Jennifer Hmphries' 200th ticket was good for $50 from The Real Estate Company.

One by one, every ticket holder in the room was eliminated until there were only five potential winners left. Martha Armstrong (who got in on a Last Chance ticket) won $100 from Nucor Steel. KNES Radio had donated $100 for the 3rd runner-up and that prize went to Joey Rodell. Limestone Project Employee's Fund had put up $250 for the second runnerup, which was won by Bucky Clark. With two vials left in the hopper, the Araya family of Buffalo was obviously destined to take the grand prize this year, since Tom and Sandra Araya each held one of the final tickets. Tom's second place prize of $500 was donated by Citizen's State Bank, and then Sandra Araya stood alone at the top o' the heap. The biggest winner, however, turned out to be BHS senior Radona Bounds, sister of Sandra Araya. Radona was surprised --and delighted-- to learn that the prize money is going toward the purchase of her first car before she heads off to college in this summer.

In addition to ticket sales, the evening’s auction and Last Chance tickets raised $4,336 for the members of the Class of 2010. They appreciate all the support and hope everyone had a good time.