UPDATE: Mercedes Benz winner leaves $18k with BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation
And in an amazing show of benevolence, Pearson, a Canadian businessman who lives in the territory and who had purchased 10 tickets with a view to winning the car, has donated $18,000 to the Foundation to enable it to meet its target of $50,000, having raised $32,000 during the raffle.
Pearson, who said that he had never won anything in his life except for this vehicle, said that he began to be ‘hated’ by some of his friends when they heard that he had won, as they had also bought tickets with the hope of winning the car.
“When my wife heard I had the winning ticket she grabbed it and said it's mine,” he said jokingly.
Following his being handed the keys to the vehicle by Chairman of the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation Cid Nava, Pearson said that he wanted to ensure that the work of the Foundation could be effected and as such he and his wife made the decision to donate the sum of $18,000.
Nava was overwhelmed by the donation and the show of support by Pearson to the work of the Foundation and expressed the Foundation’s appreciation for the gesture.
Director at CIL Simone T. Monsanto said that CIL will provide one year’s worth of insurance coverage for the vehicle.
“We were happy to work with the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation on this venture and we will do other events to raise funds for the Foundation and other causes in the community,” said Monsanto.
See previous article published on September 12, 2015:
Greg Pearson is the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation Mercedes Benz winner
- raffle nets $32,000 as VI community supports cause
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI – Greg Pearson is the winner of the brand new Mercedes Benz SUV, following the drawing of the BVI HVI/AIDS Foundation raffle last evening September 11, 2015.
The drawing took place in the courtyard of Caribbean Insurers Limited and was accompanied by a fashion show by UMI Fashion models and the revealing of the contestants for the Miss World BVI.
Following the modelling and the Miss World segments, the winning ticket was drawn by current Miss World BVI Rosanna K. Chichester. Coincidentally, Pearson's name was pulled a second time after there was no success in contacting him when his name was pulled the first time. However, a staff of auditing firm Deloite & Touche certified the draw.
“The event could not have gone better. Caribbean Insurers Limited has done such a beautiful job at UMI of bringing this together and putting up a great event that in this year has benefitted the HIV/AIDS Foundation so much,” said Cid Nava, Chairman of the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation in an interview with this news site.
He said the raffle was able to raise a lot of money for the Foundation which will be used to fund medication for persons living with HIV/AIDS and also pay for their lab tests.
“We are happy that even without this event, we made $32,000 from the raffle which is unbelievable. We brought competitors together to donate money to the cause…different insurance companies, different banks, different cell phone companies. We had all of the community involved, which at the end of the day was exactly what we wanted to accomplish.”
“We want to raise awareness within the community of the importance of HIV in the territory. We are happy that the prize has gone to someone who lives here in the BVI although the number he gave was from out of town. We are very excited and I can’t wait to give him the key,” added Nava.
Treasurer of the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation, Arletta Bickerton said that at one stage they were questioning whether they would have been able to sell off the tickets. “And tonight I almost came to tears at how this BVI community really came together for the selling of 452 tickets. People thought that we got the car for free. The car was not free. We had to pay for the car and after paying for the car and after paying for the car at $32,000 in profit we could not ask for anything more,” she said in a comment to this news site.
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45 Responses to “UPDATE: Mercedes Benz winner leaves $18k with BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation”
Was a set up? Mango Manor. Check the Facebook. Way too coincidental for me.
only his name alone was in there? how could his name got pulled twice?
it was stated that only ONE TICKET WOULD BE PULLED. The cell number would be called and if the didn't answer their name would be called out loud.
It was made clear to us that ONLY ONE TICKET would have been pulled.
I feel it was a cheat thing to have pulled two more times.
This seems like it was rigged!
Wish the churches can help more with the community from just collecting tax free tidings. They need to open more soup kitchens for the less fortunate in our community.
Wize Up, stop talking sh^&. Did it say he reached into his pocket and gave them 18K? If he has an account with sufficient funds and wrote that check, what's the problem? Locals do it all the time. Stop looking to raise an ants next over nothing man, ya'll sickening like !@$#%. You comparing this man donating money to charity by way of a check, to you walking into the bank with 5k cash and being questioned. Where you went school? Under a tamarind tree?