Findlay Subaru Prescott donates new car in raffle to support veterans.
Sometimes there is an exciting synchronicity between winning a wonderful prize and helping community members in need. Such an opportunity is being made available this summer through a partnership between Findlay Subaru Prescott and the Jerome S. Cranke Prescott Valley American Legion Post 140.
The prize is a shiny new 2025 Subaru Forester Limited, while supporting local veterans, their families and the community.
The car raffle began in mid-June and will be available for public participation until the deadline of 11:59 p.m. (PDT), July 31, 2024. Raffle tickets cost $100 each and all net proceeds will go toward supporting the post’s veteran priorities.
According to website, the Post 140 mission is “To enhance the well-being of our local veterans, their families, our military and our communities by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.”
Post officials presented a 19-page proposal to the dealership to enlist help raising money for local veteran causes. Findlay Subaru Prescott General Manager Jason Jenkins was enthusiastic about the partnership with the post.
“They picked us!” Jenkins said. “Findlay Subaru Prescott is thrilled to partner up with the American Legion Post 140 to help support our local veterans. Oh yeah, and some lucky raffle ticket owner will win a brand new 2025 Subaru Forester Limited. That’s kind of a big deal too, but we are more excited to see the funds that will be raised for our local veterans. Please go online and buy your ticket today to support this great cause. Findlay Subaru Prescott is proud to be involved in our great community.”
Enthusiasm for the partnership is shared by members of Post 140, including Commander Greg Staley, who has served in that position for three years. “We are excited and thankful to partner with Findlay Subaru,” Staley said. “Their willingness to partner with us on this raffle will help many veterans in our community. There are a lot of veterans in our community that need assistance.”
One organization the post routinely assists is U.S. VETS, which helps homeless veterans to “rehab off drugs and alcohol and get their lives back together,” he added.
“So, this raffle will give us an opportunity to help them more. We can also provide some extra assistance to our local VA, because they help a lot of vets as well.”
Findlay Subaru Prescott Marketing Director Kara Hartman said the 2025 Subaru Forester is a redesign from last year’s model, with a new look, but the actual car raffled will be determined by the inventory at the time of the drawing.
“The deadline is July 31, and the actual drawing will be early August,” she said. “The winner will be able to pick based on our inventory at the time.”
The approximate value of the car is not to exceed $40,000. “We’re conducting the raffle,” said Staley. “Findlay Subaru is helping us with the marketing because they are much better at that than we are!”
The 12-year-old post has been operating out of the Lifepointe Church, Assemblies of God in Prescott Valley. “We don’t have a building and a bar; we meet at a church,” he said. “Eventually, we’d like to get a building. Right now, we look at our community as our building, with things we can do to help our community and local veterans.”
With about 40 regular members, meetings are once a month, and a collection is taken to help local community projects and charities. “We’ve donated to programs such as Horses with Heart and the program in the Dewey-Humboldt School District that provides box lunches for kids that need help with that kind of food,” Staley said. “Those are two things that come to mind.”
Findlay Subaru Prescott also supports many of the organizations that the American Legion Post 140 supports, including Horses with Heart, U.S. VETS and the school district, Hartman noted.
The post has also adopted the American Legion Park in Prescott Valley. Post volunteers visit the park every other Thursday to pick up trash and make repairs.
The post recently changed its name to include that of Jerome S. Cranke, a soldier in the Spanish American War, whose unclaimed cremains were in an Arizona funeral home for about 100 years.
“Another program we work with is the Missing in America Project, (MIAP),” Staley said. “They go out and search the country for cremains of veterans who have been forgotten by their families or abandoned. They go through all the legal processes to become the family in order take the history of those cremains and give them a proper military burial. It’s a really good thing.” FBN
By Betsey Bruner, FBN
To purchase raffle tickets, visit www.post140az.org.
Courtesy Photo: Commander Greg Staley (center in a blue suit), shown here with the American Legion Post 140 flag crew, says he is thankful to work with Findlay Subaru Prescott to help veterans who need assistance.