The life-long resident of the district was the winner of the Kyabram Charity Raffle, which was supposed to be drawn at Christmas last year,.
A decision was made to postpone the draw until July to give the organisations, and chief ticket seller Win Crilly, enough time to sell sufficient tickets to cover the cost of the prizes.
That goal achieved, the annual raffle was drawn last week and the Warramunda Village resident’s name was drawn from the 8000 tickets.
An ex-Girgarre resident, Mrs Wheelhouse called on the advice of her family before making a decision on which prize she would take.
One of the advantages of having her named pulled out first was that she could choose between a holiday voucher, groceries, furniture and electrical goods, a ride on mower or, her eventual choice, Kyabram First vouchers.
The decision remaining is how to spend the $5200.
Mrs Wheelhouse admitted she wasn’t “a religious raffle ticket buyer’’, but had supported the community fund raising competition regularly through the years.
“I have been buying tickets in the raffle since it began, just grabbing one in the street occasionally,” she said.
Mrs Wheelhouse bought her ticket from the Kyabram P-12 College on Federal Election Day, sold to her by the Kyabram Guides.
Five organisations have been involved in the sale of tickets this year, but ticket sales were nowhere near the record 25,000 of past years.
Tickets were sold online and in person, Win Crilly again accounting for a majority of those sales from her Allan St stall.
Mrs Wheelhouse took possession of her Kyabram First vouchers from Kyabram First’s member Miles Gould.
She said the family meeting decided she didn’t need the mower (Warramunda mows the lawns) and that it would take her 10 years to spend that much on groceries.
“It was a process of elimination,” she said.
Family members have been trying to convince the family matriarch to purchase a recliner chair for many years.
That looks like it will now become a reality.
Second prize was an $800 voucher from Minger’s, won by Rebecca Westphall from Bendigo.
She bought her ticket from KCLC, because she works with them. Third prize was a $200 grocery voucher, donated by Woolworths.
That was won by Bill Chandler.
Mrs Crilly is now almost 40 years into supporting the charity raffle.
“When I first started doing it I was taking over from someone who had been doing it for 20 years.
“I will start selling tickets for the next raffle again in October. That will be drawn on Anzac Day next year.
“Then we will back on track for 2023,” Mrs Crilly said.
She said tickets were usually sold from August until the draw in December.
Fortunately, the response of the public has allowed the beneficiaries of the raffle to secure one of their major sources of financial support.
“Before we start selling tickets we are up to about $6000 (in expenses), so we wouldn't have sold $6000 worth of tickets by last Christmas.
“Because of COVID we couldn't go anywhere to sell tickets,” she said.
The charity raffle, which has been running for 60-odd years, benefits a host of causes including Kyabram Guides, Kyabram Community and Learning Centre, Kyabram P-12 College, the Kyabram Town Hall and Merrigum Community Group and Henley Friends.
Any money left over after covering the cost of the raffle prizes goes to the organisations, which they use to fund community events and activities.
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