17 YEARS OF BUYING RAFFLE TICKETS FINALLY PAYS OFF.
Ira Rosenberg listens to the Mike Calta show on radio station 102.5, The Bone, every day. Seventeen years ago, Calta began promoting the Strawberry Festival New Corvette Giveaway in partnership with Stingray Chevrolet. “He is always talking about Stingray and the raffle tickets,” Rosenberg said. Since the raffle began, Rosenberg bought either two or four of the tickets every year. On Monday, March 2, “I was on I-4 coming home, and I said, ‘I might as well buy my tickets here at Stingray,’” Rosenberg recounted. “So, I came in here and bought four tickets. On March 8, at 5:10 p.m., I was at my son’s house in Brandon, and just came home from the pool. I get a call from Galvin from the Mike Calta Show—best phone call I ever got—telling me, ‘You won!’ The ticket number I won on, if you look at it in reverse, is the year I was born on. Thank you to Stingray for running the raffle, and Unity in the Community for running the charity.”
The raffle sold 67,000 tickets, so since Rosenberg bought four tickets, he beat the 1 out of 16,750 odds to win. This year, Stingray changed things up and donated a Corvette Z06 coupe 1LZ that had a sticker price of $123,985. This is the top model, and it retailed for $40,000 more than last year’s Corvette. It is the most expensive vehicle Stingray has given away. They also changed to a new color. This year’s paint is Roswell Green Metallic. “Cactus Jane, we named her,” Rosenberg said. “I love cactuses, so it is perfect.”
Stingray gave the keys to Rosenberg on March 26 at an event at the dealership. The event thanked Kyle Robinson, Florida Strawberry Festival President, and the City Commissioners, including Mike Sparkman, who was the driving force that got the raffle going at the Florida Strawberry Festival. Awards were also given to individuals and groups who went above and beyond to make the raffle a success. On November 1, Joel Rogers took over ownership of Stingray Chevrolet from the retiring Steve Hurley. Hurley thanked Rogers and his wife, Sunshine, for making the raffle happen this year…