Drone video captures Chase the Ace madness in McIvers
$100K-plus jackpot drawing big crowds every Sunday
A drone video has captured the aerial view of the Chase the Ace mania in McIvers, as the tiny community on the north shore of the Bay of Islands has become a Sunday evening hotspot with hundreds of would-be winners flocking there for a chance to win the big jackpot.
Alex Humphries arrived an hour and a half before the latest draw this past Sunday, and whipped out his drone to help pass the time waiting in line, as he realized how large the crowd was becoming.
"It was just amazing how fast people were coming... at the end, we couldn't even see the end of the line until we got the footage from the drone," he told CBC Radio's Corner Brook Morning Show.
Humphries said he was "totally shocked" to see the footage, of nearly 2,000 lottery seekers lined up, along with cars strewn about every corner of the town.
"It was pretty cool. It was a neat experience."
Fundraising success
Humphries didn't win Sunday evening, but neither did anyone else: after 41 weeks, the ace still proves elusive, much to the delight of the lottery's organizers.
"When we started, you don't really know if the ace was going to be picked. But we kind of had a feeling, that it could lead up to this," said Shelley Lawrence, of the McIvers Come Home Year committee that's behind the whole event.
The committee has had runaway success fundraising for their Come Home Year events taking place in July 2017. So far, Lawrence said they've made around $180,000, with last week alone raking in $64,000 in total.
"We're not going to do any more fundraising, this is it — we have plenty," she laughed.
The lottery's jackpot now stands at $110,000, and Lawrence said volunteers will open the doors a half hour early next Sunday, at 4:30 p.m., to sell tickets straight through to 6:30 p.m.
With files from The Corner Brook Morning Show