About the queen
The Queen of Hearts drawing is a Rotary tradition. The exact rules vary from club to club, but in general, the drawing is a fundraiser, and if you draw the queen of hearts from a deck of cards, you win a prize.
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In our club, we sell raffle tickets before each regular meeting starts. Only Rotary members are eligible to participate. At the end of the meeting, a ticket is drawn. The member with the winning ticket gets 1/3 of that night's ticket sales. That person draws a card from a deck of playing cards. If it's the queen of hearts, they win $500; otherwise "the queen lives," we tear up the card, and in the next week's drawing the odds of getting the queen improve.
The person who wins the last raffle of the month is "the queen" for the next month. This means they need to arrive at the meeting about 20 minutes early and sit at the ticket table, selling tickets until the meeting starts. During the meeting, they calculate the sales and reserve 1/3 for the raffle winner, and give the balance (2/3) to the Treasurer who splits it between the queen pot and the Rotary Foundation. At the end of the meeting, they find someone to pull a ticket from the bucket (usually a guest). They give the winner the money and spread the cards face-down on the table so the winner can attempt to pull the queen of hearts.
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One-third of each night’s ticket sales go to the raffle winner; one-third goes to fund the queen pot; and one-third goes to the Rotary Foundation. The donation to the Rotary Foundation is made in the name of every member in the club.
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Raffle ticket prices: $1 - 1 ticket, $2 - 3 tickets, $5 – 8 tickets; $10 – 16 tickets.
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We start with a standard deck of 52 cards, and throw out each card drawn until someone draws the queen of hearts. The following week, we start back over with a full deck.
