(Seguin) – The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t stopping lucky winners from getting their hands on a designer purse. Whether it’s Consuela, Michael Kors, Coach or any other top design, the Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center is giving everyone the chance at landing one of several hand bags up for grabs during this year’s two part Designer Purse Drawing and Grab & Go Dinner.
GCCAC Executive Director Christy Williams, says for years, the advocacy center has held what most folks know as its purse bingo. There are typically two bingo fundraisers held each year, one in Seguin and one in Schertz. The pandemic, however, has forced the group to be a little more innovative in raising money while also still giving people the opportunity to win a designer purse and enjoy some good food. The first part of this year’s fundraiser is scheduled for this Thursday when the group will host its Grab & Go Dinner at the Blue Bonnet Palace in Selma.
“We have two meals options available this Thursday. The Fajitas and Margaritas Restaurant at Blue Bonnet Palace is doing their signature chicken fajitas. It comes with rice and beans and veggies and they are going to also be doing a portabella mushroom for those vegetarians or just somebody who would just rather have portabella mushroom instead of chicken. So, the cost is $12.50. We are having to pay for some of that so that will allow us to have some profits there and they are going to purchase it on our website and they go through the drive thru at the Bluebonnet Palace there in Selma from 4 to 8 p.m.,” said Williams.
While picking up their curbside meal, individuals will also get the chance to check out some of the purses that are up for grabs during this year’s purse drawing and auction.
“We are super excited about our purses this year. We always are so thankful to all the people who donate purses. We have on our website which is gccac.net all the purses available there to look at. For the drawing purses, every purse is no less than $100 in value but most of them, are upwards of $250-$350 value,” said Williams.
Williams says the second part of the fundraising event wraps up on Tuesday, June 30 with the actual purse drawing via Facebook Live. Williams says purchasing those tickets is easy and available online.
“We have drawing tickets available right now on our website as well. There’s just normal drawing tickets like a bucket drawing for several purses. There’s a stretch raffle so for people who come to our bingos, they know that we do stretch raffles so this one is called Mark’s Stretch because this is our replacement fundraiser for our Schertz Designer Purse Bingo and Mark Roberts comes to that every single year and he has the biggest arm span in the room and everyone pays their $20 and says ‘hey Mark, can you do my stretch?’ So, we are having a Mark Stretch and then we also have silent auction purses on the website for it as well,” said Williams.
Williams says she encourages folks to visit the Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center Facebook page for a look at all the available purses and ways to win. Even though COVID-19 may have prevented the community from coming together all under the same roof, Williams says it didn’t stop them from possibly reaching even more people for the cause.
“But the really exciting thing I think that COVID has allowed us to do is how anybody can participate on the event on the 30th (June) because you don’t have to be present to win. You don’t have to be local to win. If you live in Maine and you win one of those purses, we’ll ship it to Maine. If you live locally and you want to pick up your purse the next day, you can do that or we can even ship it to people as well and I’ve been trying to share the word about this so share the event with all your friends and family because they can participate in the event on the 30th. Buy a $3 drawing ticket and win a $350 purse,” said Williams.
To purchase meal tickets for this week or $3 purse tickets for next week, visit www.gccac.net. The website and the GCCAC’s Facebook page also features the designer purses and their sponsors.