Tickets for the Son Light Celebration’s raffle offering a new Ford Fiesta and a trip to a Seattle Seahawks game will be available for purchase beginning June 1, at parishes throughout the Diocese of Helena and at other locations. A maximum of 5,000 tickets will be sold.

First prize is a 2011 Ford Fiesta SE sedan. Second prize is the Seattle trip for two to watch the Seahawks at Qwest Field. Raffle tickets cost $25 each, or $100 for five.

“We are so grateful for the opportunity to work with Hal Woods and Kathy Ogren at Bitterroot Motors in Missoula, and Clark and Toni Broadbent at Allegra Print & Imaging in Helena,” said Glenda Seipp, event coordinator and Stewardship Services director for the diocese. “They have assisted us in being able to offer two outstanding raffle prizes.”

As in years past, rewards are being offered as incentives to boost ticket sales. The parish or group that sells the ticket winning the first prize will receive $2,500, as will the parish or group selling the most tickets. Tickets are available at Legendary Lodge, Catholic Social Services of Montana, the Montana Catholic Conference, Catholic schools and the Chancery in Helena, as well as at parishes.

The annual Son Light Celebration, begun in 2006 and set for this Oct. 1 in Helena, raises money for youth and young adult ministries in the diocese. Vashti Teders of the Son Light Steering Committee said she knows firsthand the benefits of those ministries.

“Someone once said, `It takes a village to raise a child,’” said Teders, a member of the Cathedral of St. Helena Parish. “If so, then I am honored and privileged to say Loyola Sacred Heart High School, Carroll College, CYC Council and Legendary Lodge was my village. My village blessed me with the Holy Spirit, and for that I am grateful.”

As a member of the steering committee, Teders is focusing her efforts on the raffle and its benefit to Legendary Lodge, the diocesan camp. She was a camper there, and in 1996-97, she worked as a counselor.

“Legendary Lodge provides a nurturing environment for kids to be with other youth and to share their faith,” she said. “It helps them find the gifts that God has given them.”

Since the raffle’s inception, it has generated more than $185,000 for Legendary Lodge.

Use of raffle money includes last year’s purchase of a pontoon boat, The Mary T, to transport campers across Salmon Lake. A new dock for swimmers also has been funded, and will be ready for use this summer. There are plans to buy a second pontoon boat with the 2010 raffle money, and name it Dream Catcher.

Of the more than $350,000 raised through the Son Light Celebration the past four years, $82,500 went to the Foundation for the Diocese of Helena to be endowed. The remainder helped support needs in the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, as well as needs at Legendary Lodge.

Son Light will begin at the Cathedral of St. Helena, with prayer and a stewardship witness offered by a person who is within the Diocese of Helena and serves the Church as an expression of discipleship. A dinner, an auction and the raffle drawings will take place at the Helena Civic Center.

Son Light tickets cost $75 per person, $35 for a “young friend” ticket used by a person under 35 and $500 for a table of eight.

More information about the raffle and Son Light events is available on the Web at www.diocesehelena.org/sonlight.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 5, May 21, 2010.