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This is Page 5 of 5 of Oriental Cup 2004
Raffle Controversy
This year’s Oriental Cup Regatta featured a raffle for
a canoe and a kayak donated by Pirate Queen Paddling.
| 
The
raffle boats
|
It marked
a departure from recent years and the silent auction of items
from area businesses. At least one participant in this year’s
raffle was wishing for the old days...(that would be the TownDock.net
publisher)
Paula
Winston pulls the winning tickets |
Just as Sunday’s
awards ceremony was ending, regatta organizer Paula Winston pulled
the winning tickets from the box that once held a case of Yeungling
beer. She
gave the first ticket to the awards ceremony MC Keith Smith who
at first declined to announce the name. After some delay, he said,
“It’s my wife.”
That would be TownDock.net's Melinda Penkava.
Various cries of “Fix” rose from the crowd already
loosened by Bloody Mary’s and mimosas. Smith’s wife
– who’d had a Bloody Mary herself – thought
she would explain that they’d bought five tickets and she
wrote his name on all but one, saving the last for her own name….
which she realized as she uttered it only made her odds of winning
even more improbable. She chose the bright orange canoe.
Teresa
Oakey won the kayak |
The next
name pulled from the Yeungling box by Paula Winston was Teresa
Oakey of Chocowinity who won the kayak.
Laws of probability aside, a number of people in town have calculated
that they’ve wracked up a good 3 months of “ragging
rights” with Smith over the incident.
Keith's Story ("it's my story
and I'm stickin' with it"):
"I was purchasing two Land passes Friday night when Jay
Winston accosted me to purchase raffle tickets. Jay has such
a gentle persuasive way about him. I gave him twenty bucks so
he would stop hounding me. Jay handed me the raffle tickets...I
stuffed 'em in my pocket with no intention of filling them out
(knowing I was to be the awards MC). Melinda found the tickets
stuffed in my shirt pocket. She didn't see it my way...took
'em...and filled 'em out."
Smith was
still not persuaded of his good luck. A few hours after the
drawing (and after much ragging in the village) he could be
heard at TownDock.net headquarters muttering, "It would’ve
been easier to buy the damn canoe."
