The week of 7/6 to 7/12/2025 was a very busy week for the Rotary Club of Burton-Middlefield (BMR). At our regular Wednesday evening meeting at Welshfield Inn we had our yearly changeover where we induct a new club president and Board of Directors. Rotary has a long-standing tradition of changing leaders every year as their new year starts on July 1st. Every officer at the club, district, zone and Rotary International level is renewed to take advantage of new ideas and enthusiasm. Club member Jeff Pascoe took the reigns of BMR from last years president Larry Fox. They exchanged club leadership pins and then presented some awards to deserving club members. With the new club president installed we then inducted the Board of Directors where 11 club members officially became the new Board.
With our new leadership team in place we moved on to Friday afternoon and the set up for the 2025 Maple Splash Raffle Festival (MSR). Set up and prep. continued through Saturday morning up to the start of the MSR at 2:00PM. A larger tent that included a stage was in place and provided shade from the intense sunshine in the afternoon. We believe that the heat and a short shower of rain impacted the attendance that was down a little from last year. But intense enthusiasm from fans and followers of the Rockability band followed by the incredible Todd Meany and his Ace Molar band. They ramped up the singing and dancing fun and overall excitement. Last minute ticket sales were brisk with the event- only 50/50 drawing generating over $2000, half of which went to a very excited attendee. The on-line 50/50 raffle that has been going on since January raised over $16,000; half of which went to a winner who was not present but went wild when phoned later and notified of their win. Drawings for the prizes began at 8:00PM with the first pick who was the winner of the brand new Ford F-150 pickup provided by Preston Ford. A ticket purchaser from Florida was the name drawn who said “he couldn’t believe it since he never won anything!” The truck will be delivered to him by a willing Rotarian who is scheduled to visit Florida in the next month. Other winners of prizes from four different drawings kept the excitement high for the next hour with several winners being present but many who were not. They were notified directly after the drawing by phone.
The raffle basket portion of the MSR Festival also created a lot of traffic and enthusiasm, especially with the plinko board being used to increase the number of tickets purchasers could use to place in the baskets. The raffle basket crew who put the baskets together produced an incredible 75 baskets and generated a record amount of funds for this part of BMR’s fundraiser.
Food trucks and non-profit organizations who filled the Century Village grounds made the day very pleasant for attendees. We offered the non-profits a chance to intermingle with the mostly Geauga County event goers and explain the importance of their programs and the work they do. A “Passport” program that allowed attendees a chance to visit with the reps. of the non-profits and have them sign their “passport sheets” which were then turned into the passport table and made them eligible for a massive $1000 gift basket containing a multitude of gift cards, lottery tickets and many other prizes. This made this event very popular. There was also a child’s part of this passport project that allowed children to participate and win ice cream prizes that were very popular and had them lined up at the Cowboy Creamery food truck.
The BMR club and event committee reported that profits for the Maple Splash Raffle event which takes place starting around January 1st. every year, were up again and will allow the Rotary Club of Burton-Middlefield to increase their non-profit giving. It will also allow us to contribute to more non-profits than in past years. If any non-profits that we currently do not serve would like to join in this very successful endeavor in the future we urge you to contact BMR and join in the fun and support that BMR provides. Also, any professionals out there; young or old, male or female who want to join our non-denominational and non-political humanitarian organization of Rotary, and join in the very rewarding work that we do please contact us at: burtonmiddlefieldrotary.com
Submitted by Bob Johnson, PDG
Secretary, Burton-Middlefield Rotary
