Charity lottery could help students net fees
Jordan Poulton, the organiser of the lottery which could see a student win a year's tuition fees.
One lucky student could win a year’s worth of tuition fees if a scheme by an enterprising Worcester student goes ahead. The Oxford Charity Lottery is a plan to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, and would award the winner £1,175 in cash. Planned for next term, the lottery would have to sell over 2,500 tickets to make it legally viable to award such a large cash prize, leaving at least £1,325 for the charity.
This would involve every college selling a minimum of 80 tickets at a cost of £1 each, a task Jordan Poulton, the brains behind the project, thinks is entirely feasible. “I’ve got a lot of hope, and a lot of faith in the project. It’s so cheap and such a good prize, and the money goes to charity • it’s a win-win situation really.” He plans on recruiting reps from the various colleges, who would have the added incentive of a free ticket for every ten tickets sold.
“Although the minimum we can sell is 2,500 tickets, I would hope to sell about 3,000 to 3,500 for the first draw • we just need as many people as possible helping out.” The Oxford City Council are already on board, and a license for the event is likely to be provided in the next few weeks. The draw would be recorded, with the video being available on a website to reassure participants that everything is above board.
Poulton, a first year studying Spanish and Philosophy, says his original plan was for a similar event confined just to Worcester. “Over the summer I was thinking about organising a charity duck race in college, but then I thought it would be much easier to do a lottery, and I realised it could involve the whole university.” He hopes that if the first draw is successful then the idea can be used to raise money for various good causes throughout the year.
“Ideally I’d like to hold at least one draw a term, with students being able to send in their own suggestions for charities. I just wanted to give the money to the earthquake victims this time because I feel there was so much publicity about the Tsunami that they were forgotten.”.
17th Nov 2005