All winners great and small

Rotarian Gary Scott hands a $250 prize to Buster, a winner, thanks to ticket-buyers Tom and Maureen Daily, in the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley’s annual Luck of the Irish raffle. Buster has no comment on what he might do with the winnings.

The raffle’s grand prize went to Simone Cherian. The Sonoma resident, was trying to get her Internet service restored Saturday about 8:30 p.m. when her phone rang. She asked her husband, Sunny, to take the call. He told her Jon Parker, president of the Rotary Club, and Wayne Schake, a club member, called to say the Cherians had won the big prize — a choice between $10,000 or a round trip for two to Ireland. But since she’d bought the ticket earlier that day, Sunny said, “Wayne’s just trying to fool with you.”

The Cherians didn’t think any more about it — until about 10:00 p.m. when 10 Rotarians decked out in St. Paddy’s Day garb appeared on the Cherians’ doorstep to help celebrate the win. “We’ve never ever won so much as 50 cents,” said Simone. “We buy a raffle ticket from Wayne every year because he is such an incredible ‘do-gooder’ who is always helping others. He is simply amazing and a dear friend.” On the day the day of the drawing, a friend mentioned that they were joining the Schakes for the St. Paddy’s Day dinner. With the reminder, Simone called Wayne to buy a raffle ticket. Five hours later her number was pulled from the spinning cage.

The event raised $65,000, all of which will go to community projects and local non-profits.