Feb. 20, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by JJ’s Wine, Spirits & Cigars.

When the clock strikes 7:11 p.m., someone could become a big winner each Tuesday at JJ’s Wine, Spirits & Cigars.

A new Queen of Hearts fundraiser offers one more great reason to visit the popular adult-beverage store’s bar. Order a beverage, enjoy some food, buy a ticket, and you’ve already won by supporting two worthy nonprofits.

“We want to invite people into our space, and we want to be impactful for charities, and we think this is a great way to do both,” JJ’s owner Tom Slattery said. “These events have achieved substantial impact both for charities and businesses, and we thought it would be fun to offer to our guests.”

If you’re not familiar with the concept, here’s how it works:

Purchase a ticket – they’re one for $5 or five for $20 – and then wait for the drawing. If you’re playing in person or online, you choose a card on the board. If it’s the Queen of Hearts, you win the jackpot! If you don’t find the queen, you win 10 percent of that week’s ticket sales. The pot is a cumulative total from week to week, with 50 percent of the ticket proceeds – less the 10 percent to the weekly winner – being added to the total. The remaining 50 percent will be split by Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Dakota and Dakota Dachshund Rescue.

If you play online, you can choose your card virtually should you win.

If you don’t choose the Queen of Hearts, you still win 10 percent of the weekly sales, and the remainder is added to the jackpot total for the following week.

The starting jackpot is $5,000 but will grow for the first drawing depending on the number of tickets sold!

Tickets will be sold online until noon each Tuesday and in person until about 6:30 p.m. In-person sales are cash only.

“You don’t know how long the jackpot will build and how long the event will go on,” Slattery said. “It’s possible we can be talking about this a year from now with a six-figure jackpot and just a few cards left.”

That’s the hope of Rodger Lacey, a board member with Dakota Dachshund Rescue, who approached Slattery about partnering on such an event.

“I know JJ’s is dog-friendly, and Tom is a progressive business owner – I really admire his business model – so I just made an appointment to talk with him,” Lacey said. “It turns out he’d been thinking about the same thing.”

As they thought through the plan, Slattery felt it was important to also include a human-centered charity, “and he said he’d like to add Ronald McDonald House, which I thought was perfect, and it flowed from there,” Lacey said.

For Ronald McDonald House, “we’d never done an event like this before but had seen them elsewhere, and so when Tom approached us, I was totally excited to get it going,” said Mike Broderick, community outreach officer.

Ronald McDonald House will celebrate its 40th anniversary in Sioux Falls later this year. In that time, it has served more than 19,000 families who have stayed more than 135,000 nights while a loved one received medical care.

“We provide the comforts of home – home-cooked meals and access to family rooms, playrooms, laundry – and we offer it at no charge to the family,” Broderick said. “We typically see over 1,000 families a year from all over South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, northwest Iowa, and if they’re coming to Sioux Falls, we have two houses: an eight-bedroom by Avera and a 21-bedroom near the Sanford Castle.”

For Slattery, who has served on the board of Ronald McDonald House, “we’re drawn to the mission,” he said. “They service a network of people in need of assistance who are from across our region, and they’re making this a home away from home.”

Dakota Dachshund Rescue will add some canine guests at the Queen of Hearts drawings as it shares the story of the good work the organization does for dogs in need.

“We adopted out 222 dogs last year and currently have 42 dogs being fostered,” Lacey said. “We’re a home-based rescue without a kennel that relies on volunteers to help bring dogs into their homes, socialize them and many times help them learn how to be a dog.”

Many of the dachshunds come from breeders who have decided to get rid of them, from puppies through adult dogs, or they come from owners who can’t keep them for various reasons – especially older adults transitioning into senior care where they can’t take their dogs.

Often, the dogs will need to be spayed or neutered or will require dental care, vaccinations or other medical care. The bills can add up to far more than adoption fees cover.

“We’ll bring two adoptable, probably older, dogs who will be wearing bandanas with hearts for the occasion,” Lacey said.

The group definitely has identified a need and a solution, Slattery said.

“They have a need to do charitable work to help these animals find their forever home, and we can’t argue with that,” he said.

When guests come to JJ’s each Tuesday beginning this week, they’ll find plenty of fun and food awaiting along with the Queen of Hearts.

For the first week, Chicago-style hot dogs will be on the menu – a nod to the wiener dogs – and there will be live music.

“We make zero on the raffle itself,” Slattery added. “For us, it’s all about bringing people into the bar, and we’re hoping it extends to patio season where we have a great tie-in with our Tuesday night Cocktails and Cars. We’re doing everything legitimately, and we have a great emphasis on process and security, so players will know we take their participation seriously and all the money gets turned over to the charities.”

To learn more about the Queen of Hearts at JJ’s, click here.