On Saturday night, October 22, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Ocoee Region’s Meigs County Unit, located in Athens, TN., gave away a brand new Polaris RZR XP 1000 Side-by-Side. The giveaway took place at the Meigs Unit’s Fall Festival. The lucky winners, David and Tiffany Wiggins, are residents of Meigs County.
The Fall Festival, which has become an annual tradition for the Club in Meigs County, featured a silent auction (supporters donated tiki torches, and an inflatable pool for kids), free food, carnival games (football toss, bean bag toss, ring toss, tic-tac-toe), hay rides, and a haunted house that has become a favorite with Club kids. In fact, the haunted house, which was built inside the Meigs Unit, was conceptualized, decorated, and run by the Meigs Unit’s Torch Club. Torch Clubs are chartered, small-group character and leadership clubs for boys and girls ages 11 to 13, and function much like a “club within the Club,” helping to meet the special character-development needs of younger adolescents at a critical stage in their life. Torch Club members elect officers and work together to implement projects in the four focus areas: service to Club and community; education; health and fitness; and social recreation. Cost of entering the haunted house is $5 per person and last year it raised more than $400. Meigs Unit Director, Tiffany Harris, is hopeful that even more will be raised this year!
From the community, members of the Cottonport Church of God were also on hand, giving away free popcorn and prizes, and Meigs board member, Todd Farrell, brought a tractor and trailer filled with hay, while BGCOR staff member (and Madisonville Unit Director), Jordan Campbell, told “scary stories” to hayriders.
But the biggest draw was the Polaris RZR. Community members purchased tickets ($50 each, or 5 for $200) for a chance to win the coveted prize.
One of Meigs’ founding board members, John Ferguson, was the one who actually sold the winning ticket.
“David is an old coworker of mine,” said John, “and he lives just down the road from me. I went and knocked on his door and showed him the flyer with the picture of the RZR. I said, ‘Hey, what do you think? Want a chance to win this?’ He didn’t need convincing. He even decided to buy a pack of five tickets for $200! I’m really happy that someone local won.”
At the time of the drawing, David was just getting off work, and neither he nor his wife, Tiffany, were present for the actual drawing.
“I came earlier to enjoy the festival with the haunted house,” said Tiffany. “We ate, did the hayrides, and around 6:30, I figured, There’s no way we’re winning this raffle, so I decided to just go home. I was at home, talking to my mother on the phone, and I got a call from John Ferguson, the person who sold us the tickets for the raffle. At first, I thought it was a wrong number because I heard all the kids screaming in the background. Then I thought it was a prank or one of those auto dialers. I just didn’t make the connection. Then John said, ‘Tiffany, you’re not going to believe this, but David just won the Polaris!’ He was right. I couldn’t believe it! I told my mother, ‘You’re never going to believe this … David just won!’”
The Wiggins have a family farm up north of Nashville and are already planning to take the Polaris up there to break it in.
Meigs board and staff have already begun making plans for next year’s Fall Festival and giveaway, and their hopes are to make it even bigger and better than ever!
