The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation hopes to raise three million dollars this year through its annual Dream of a Lifetime Lottery.
On Monday morning, the CHEO Foundation unveiled the grand prize this year: a $1.65-million home on Bridgeport Avenue, that comes fully furnished and complete with a billiards table and climbing wall. The grand prize also includes $100,000 in cash, a 2017 Infiniti (or $47,000 in cash), house cleaning for a year and $5,000 in groceries.
Money raised through this lottery goes straight to the hospital and will help thousands of patients.
"The money will go to a variety of things throughout CHEO," said Kevin Keohane, the president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation. "A large proportion of it will go toward research at the CHEO Research Institute, where we are supporting literally hundreds of research projects across the full spectrum of children's health. Other money, of course, will go toward the purchase of equipment. As you may know, the provincial government does help to pay for the technicians that operate the equipment, but the equipment itself is actually a community responsibility and we do that in part through this lottery."
Sarah Patterson's eight month old daughter Everley has spend 210 days at CHEO.
"CHEO's our family," said Patterson. "CHEO's been around more than our family has, right? They're excellent in providing family-centred patient care. They don't just treat Everley. They treat (my husband) Jordan and I and they've really given us an opportunity to have a life with Everley. They've saved her life. She has the potential of having a bright, beautiful future because of CHEO."
"By supporting this lottery, you're helping children like Everley," Patterson said.
This year's lottery includes hundreds of prizes and three deadlines:
Hurry Up to the Grey Cup - Sept. 23rd
Early Bird Deadline - Nov. 18th
Final Deadline - Dec. 9th
Click here for more information.