Northbrook Days Festival raffle presses on despite fest cancellation

The cancellation of the 2020 Northbrook Days Festival due to COVID-19 doesn't mean organizers are sitting on their hands.

Festival chairman Matt Settler, now in his seventh year in the position, said the Northbrook Civic Foundation's main fundraiser, the Northbrook Days raffle, is still full go.

"We would have loved to have had our festival, but not having the festival, the whole gamut, has given all of us an opportunity to dive into the raffle," Settler said.

"Normally each of us would be doing 25 things because there's so much to get done."

Now the team is focused on selling raffle tickets, locking down the 15 to 20 fun prizes they'll also award this year, and disseminating information on all of the above.

Contest rules, and tickets priced at $10 apiece, are available through the northbrookdays.com website or at the Northbrook Farmers Market, through noon, Aug. 8.

It's a 50/50 raffle until 2,000 tickets are sold. After that threshold is reached, a $10,000 cash prize will be awarded to a lucky winner. Prize drawings will be conducted at 5 p.m. Aug. 9 on Facebook Live from the Northbrook Civic Foundation on Walters Avenue.

A raffle ticket is kind of like a prize in itself, with a $12 Waterway Car Wash coupon on the back.

Settler said that, on average over the past several years, the five days of raffle ticket sales have produced net proceeds of roughly $50,000 to $60,000.

After expenses in 2019, the nonprofit foundation awarded approximately $40,000 in grants to community organizations, and scholarships to 11 Northbrook high school seniors from the Class of 2019-20. The scholarship application process begins each January of that year's festival.

Nominated by school guidance counselors, the 2019-20 scholarship winners were Grace Chiappetti, Joseph Cho, Athena Gesite, Celia Giles, Sara Ibrahim, Anuhya Lakkamsani, Matthew Lee, In Hyeok Oh, Ivana Salto Lopez de Llergo, Joana Salto Lopez de Llergo and Meghan Traynor.

Settler & Co. could have let COVID-19 also cancel the raffle in what would have been the 96th year of the Northbrook Days Festival.

Not on their watch.

"We're just trying to keep it as simple as possible and trying to keep it in people's minds because we do plan on coming back next year," Settler said.

"Not only can you win some prizes or win some decent cash, it obviously does help the community."