The Cochise College Classified Association is organizing its annual raffle again this spring to raise money for scholarships to benefit students.

Terry Ortiz, left, of student services, and Helen Lehman, library, prepare raffle ticket bags for last year's Classified Association drawing. (Photo by Mary Fogleman)

Raffle committee members will be visiting businesses across the county through the end of the month, soliciting donated prizes to be raffled off. This tradition, started by the Classified Association several years ago, has helped provide more than $20,000 in scholarships for 72 students in the last six years.

Once all the prizes — which include, among many other things, gift certificates, cash, food and handcrafted items by Classified Association members — are collected, tickets go on sale March 1.

Last year’s raffle saw 127 prizes available. The raffle is “Pick-A-Prize” style, which means tickets are sorted by prize and purchasers decide which prize their tickets are trying to win.

“You only have to compete with others trying to win that same prize, which significantly increases your odds to win,” said Helen Lehman, who is the Circulation Manager for the Cochise College Douglas Campus Library.

Tickets are on sale through the end of March. Raffle drawings begin at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 10 in Cochise College’s ITV classrooms, which is room 301 in Douglas and 901 at the Sierra Vista Campus. ITV classrooms are also in the Willcox and Nogales centers, but Benson will not be connected because a class is scheduled for that time slot.

For more information about donating items or buying tickets, call Lehman at 417-4082.