Road to 80 names $500 winner; $1,000 to be raffled today

In this frame grab from a Facebook Live broadcast, Road to 80 raffle host Brad Ruszala presents the $500 cash prize to raffle winner Venus Magno Angeles. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign Road to 80 held another raffle yesterday for $500 and a 56-year-old Saipan resident who is a mother of eight was its winner.

On Wednesday, raffle host Brad Ruszala said that Road to 80 would have another $500 raffle on Thursday if the campaign’s Facebook page reached 3,000 likes—a milestone that CNMI residents easily surmounted. The page received more than 1,000 likes overnight, and as of Thursday afternoon, was approaching 5,000 page likes.

Just like Wednesday’s raffle, to qualify for the $500 cash prize people had to like the Road to 80 Facebook page, and like and share a specific post on the page. The winner was announced at noon on Thursday on Facebook Live. A virtual wheel filled with over 3,000 names was spun, and Venus Magno Angeles was the raffle’s lucky winner. When asked for comment, Angeles wanted the community to know that the Road to 80 is legitimate, and urged everyone to get vaccinated for the sake of the community. “I’m so happy, of course, with the help of the Lord. It’s an answered prayer actually. I would like to tell [everyone] that Road to 80 is true and legit and, of course, I would like to encourage people who are not vaccinated to get [the vaccine] while it’s still available [because] it’s for their safety and also for the community,” said Angeles.

Ruszala delivered the $500 cash to Angeles personally outside her private residence on Thursday afternoon. The handoff was streamed on Facebook Live.

Road to 80’s upcoming series of weekly raffles, beginning Friday, will only pull from a pool of the tens of thousands of people in the CNMI that have received their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson or Janssen vaccine. Everyone who has information on record through registering online at vaccinatecnmi.com and has received their shots qualify. The winner of this week’s $1,000 raffle will be selected on Facebook Live at 5pm Friday.

From weeks one to seven, the weekly cash prizes are as follows: $1,000; $1,500; $2,000; $2,500; $3,000; $3,500; $4,000. For winners to claim their prize, they will need to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated. For those that have received the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, this means presenting the second COVID-19 vaccination confirmation number. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson or Janssen vaccine can claim their prize, and only need to present their single COVID-19 vaccination confirmation number.