The fundraiser that Sp rked a War C Story By Jessica Perkins ory Samsil does not like to lose. Even after two years, his competitive nature won’t allow him to forgive opponent Jim Dudley for J o h refusing to split the cash prize at the 2014 Elimination Dinner. Cory’s grudge began something like this. Each year the United Way hosts the Elimination Dinner. The event is a fundraiser that helps provide funds for its partner nonǦproϐit agenciesǤ wo hundred tickets are created, some sold in advance and others reserved for use during the event. One ticket buys two dinners and one chance to win a grand prize of $5,000. enough, it’s not simple at all. This is not a typical rafϐleǤ While this set up sounds simple hen a ticket is drawn, rather than allowing the ticket holders to win it actually eliminates them from the drawing. The individuals then choose to buy one of the remaining l e y , tickets or give up and watch everyone else ϐight to the death to win the ̈́5ǡ000Ǥ nce only ϐive of the ʹ00 tickets remain undrawn, ticket holders are given the option to split the proceeds among themselves or to continue until one ticket wins the pot of cash. That was the situation in 2014, the year that Jim Dudley, Cory Samsil, Bob Taylor, Keith Jett, John Durbin and Elizabeth Dorsey held the ϐinal ϐive ticketsǤ t each turnǡ the six was given the option to split the money or to keep going until only one ticket remained. The group had to agree unanimously in order to split the prize. So, as sometimes happens, there was one dissenting voice among them. Jim wanted to keep going. Tensions grew high throughout the night as crowds cheered Jim on to hold his ground. ll the whileǡ ory and the others were ready to throw in the towel and split the cash six waysǤ “There was $5,000 in the pot. Everyone wanted to split the cash…but Jim,” Cory says. “In my defense, there were a lot of people in the crowd with pitchforks yelling ‘No, no!’ They wanted me to keep going,” Jim laughs. lways one to please a crowdǡ im kept going until the bitter end. However, as fate would have it, it was not Jim who walked away with the $5,000, but rather Bob Taylor and Keith Jett shared the winning ticket, winning the grand prize. “I can’t see Cory without him telling me that I owe him a lot of money,” Jim says. “I lost a lot of money that night,” Cory recalls. nited ay xecutive irector Zuber reminds Cory that it was all for a good cause. “No, you gave a lot of money,” she says. onique Monique Zuber, Bob Taylor, Linda Taylor, Keith Jett, Shanon Jett, Betsy Burkeen 34 AUGUST 2016 n d C D D u o r u r y b m S i n J i a m s i l
