After many years of buying two tickets in the annual car raffle held to benefit the Hobbs Boys and Girls Club, this year James King bought just one.
That one, however, was the winning ticket that allowed King to choose a bright blue Ford Mustang at Saturday’s drawing at the Lea County Event Center.
King said he is thrilled with the car. He said he had a choice of several vehicles, but chose the Mustang because “I’ve already got a truck and an SUV.
“I paid the tax, title and license and then drove it home,” King said, although a picture provided by Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Mike Clampitt showed King’s wife in the driver’s seat as James flashed a victory sign.
Florence King, James’ wife, said she was going to drive the car and James said, “Anything she wants. She’ll drive it to run errands and to do church work.”
Both Florence and James are active in their church. James is a deacon and has a jail ministry in Lovington. He said he “retired Florence from her job outside our home last year so she could see after her mother and do the church work she loves.”
James works for Occidental Petroleum. “Everybody calls it Oxy. I love my job,” James said. “And I just love the Lord. I love working for God. I love my community and I thank God for my blessings.”
James is particularly glad that the money people pay for raffle tickets for the vehicle being raffled each year goes to the Boys and Girls Club.
“I grew up in the Boys Club. I was into the sports there and at the schools,” James said. “I played football and basketball and ran track, but football was my main sport. The Boys Club was a wonderful place for me. I saw to it that my boys were at the Boys Club as much as they could be.”
James married Florence when he was 19. He and his wife have three sons, aged 31, 28 and 25. They will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary Saturday.
Club leader Clampitt was pleased with this year’s raffle and was pleased that King won the car.
Clampitt described King as “such a good guy,” before he talked about this year’s fund-raiser.
“It brought in the second most money we’ve ever brought in,” he said. “We sold 26,000 tickets at $50 each, but we won’t know how much we’ve netted until all the bills are in,” Clampitt said.
“Expenses for the fundraiser include the cost of the vehicle, purchased from Permian Auto Group, the cost of the food served the day of the drawing, advertising and other incidental expenses,” Clampitt said. “All the proceeds will go to support the programs of the Boys and Girls Club.”
Clampitt said the way the winner of the raffle is chosen was changed “a couple of years ago. Now we put all the tickets in the hopper and we draw out 201 tickets. And we put the 201 tickets in another hopper and we draw them out one at a time until there is only one left and the owner of that ticket wins the car.”
Pleased though Clampitt is with this year’s fundraiser, he’s hoping for an even better year next year.
Dorothy N. Fowler can be reached at education@ hobbsnews.com .
