PAFD Decoded!
Are you one of the over 6,000 registered PAFD Lotto entrants who eagerly await the Saturday evening Lotto Draw?
Have you ever wondered how the lucky winners, or not so lucky non-winners, get their names picked?
We ourselves were curious, and asked Chief Phil Walker if we could let folks in on the mystery, a request he graciously granted.
When the PAFD 50/50 draw was begun, the fire department simply wrote each new entrant’s name on a slip of paper and sealed it in an individual pill bottle.
These were then tossed into a barrel and each Saturday a bottle would be fished out by a civilian and the name announced.
By the time the number of entries had risen to 1,200 names, each in its own little pill bottle, it became apparent that things had gotten way out of hand. Time to reboot the system!
The method then devised is really very ingenious.
Dale Tomkins crafted a wire barrel that contains 4 separate compartments. It looks like a long hamster wheel.
Each of the four compartments contains pill bottles with numbers from zero to nine concealed inside.
This makes it possible to create a new number each draw.
All the names of entrants are listed alphabetically and assigned a number in a computer file.
You cannot see the numbers from the outside of the bottle, you have to open the lid and look inside.
The fire department always drafts a civilian to pick the numbers. No firemen touch the bottles during the draw, they act only as witnesses. If there isn’t a handy civilian hanging around the fire hall come Saturday evening, the guys will go out onto the street and shanghai a passing motorist or pedestrian!
At around 6:00 pm, the barrel is spun to mix up the bottles inside, and the person drawing the numbers for the week reaches into the first compartment and picks out one bottle.
The bottle is opened, and the number witnessed and recorded. And so on through the bottles until a 4 digit number is created.
As of last week there were 6,278 registered PAFD lotto members. If every member was paid up for each
week the dollar amount of the lotto prize would match the number of entrants. So that clues you in to how many people are not paid up for any given week. That’s about a thousand non-payers each week!
If a person entered into the draw does not play for an entire calendar year, he or she is considered a non-player and removed from the database.
The only other ways to be removed from the game are to formally request to be it or to pass on from this mortal coil.
Chief Phil also told us that it’s a very good idea to hang onto your receipts when you pay to play….they try to keep the database updated, but hey, stuff happens, as they say!
In the event of a discrepancy, your receipt will be your proof that you are paid up in the game.
And you are paid up, aren’t you?!!!
Stephanie Kelley
