The Prince George Hospice Society cut the ribbon Wednesday, June 25 on its 15th dream home in Prince George, signalling the start of the 2025 Hospice Dream Home Lottery.
This luxurious home, located at 7807 Southridge Ave., was built by Elite Pacific Homes and features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a walk-out basement, a wine room, a spacious garage and more.
The total value of the grand prize home is $1,001,620.25.
Funds from ticket purchases will go towards supporting the work of the Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society (PGHPCS).
Donna Flood, the executive director of PGHPCS, said that the funds from the Dream Home make up 30 per cent of the funding for the Hospice House, with the remaining 70 per cent coming from Northern Health.
“Without this lotto, we really wouldn't have a hospice in our community,” said Flood. “It's really, really important and a dream home doesn't just happen on its own. It's a lot of our community, it's a lot of love that gets put into this.”
Flood spoke to The Citizen about how exciting it is to open up another dream home for the community that will help benefit such a good cause.
“It's always a big deal for us,” said Flood. “It's always exciting to just show these beautiful homes that are generously and lovingly made by people within our community. Again, it's really important because it's what keeps Hospice alive. It keeps us sort of able to do the service that we do and so we enjoy the community to come in and take a peek.”
She also spoke on the generosity of the Prince George community throughout the years in its support of the dream home.
“We have a really generous community that has allowed us to do this,” said Flood. “It's a pretty risky business to do a lottery with a house because the house isn't free. We do have to buy the house. We have to be optimistic that we're going to sell enough tickets to at least buy the house first. Then everything else becomes what we use to do our service."
The support is there, she added.
"Year after year, the last 11 houses we've sold out," she said. "That's pretty impressive. I expect the community will step up and help us sell out again, especially once they see this beautiful home.”
Flood added that local people often wait until the last minute to buy tickets, something she's gotten used to.
“We are known as a last-minute town, and so you all keep me on edge until the last minute, those final two weeks,” said Flood. “It's just what happens, right? I've had six months to sell out. And at one time I had only two and a half months to sell out. So it really doesn't even matter how much time everybody waits until the last couple of weeks. So if you can come early, come often and buy your ticket.”
More than 19,000 tickets are available, going for $125 a pop and $200 for a two-pack. The draw date will be Dec. 3.
You can find tickets and more information by visiting the Hospice Dream Home Lottery website.
