Ticket Sales Begin for the St. Francis Medical Center Foundation’s 2 Cars 2 Winners Raffle!

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - 2 Cars 2 Winners is back, and ticket sales kick off TODAY!

The St. Francis Medical Center Foundation’s annual raffle is going back to giving away new cars to two lucky winners.

Last year, they gave away $50K to one winner because they knew how hard it was on people during the pandemic. This year, the foundation says people are having a hard time getting new vehicles, so they wanted to give people the opportunity to win either a 2022 Nissan Titan Pro-4X or a 2022 Toyota 4Runner SR5 courtesy of Sparks Nissan and Van-Trow Toyota.

All the money raised from the raffle goes to women’s, children’s, and critical care services at the hospital.

Over the past few years, they’ve been able to use proceeds to build a new helipad, allowing patients to be transported quickly and from further distances to get the care needed.

Dr. Thomas Gullatt, the new President and CEO of St. Francis, says they’ve been able to help 130 patients with the new helipad over the last year.

“The helipad was a tremendous addition for us. First, it provides a safe way for us to get urgent and emergent patients in that have a need for critical care services, and it provides us a safe way to get folks out of our area that have a need for higher, specialized care. We’re right next to the interstate, so it’s a key part in us becoming a trauma center,” explains Dr. Gullatt.

Just before the pandemic, they renovated the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and moved it to the Pediatric floor. St. Francis Medical Center has the region’s only Level II PICU.

They were also able to create 10 new ICU beds, which allowed more patients to stay at the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Money also helps buy new technology for many departments including the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

All of those advancements are made possible by a $50 raffle ticket.

After six years of doing the raffle, the St. Francis Foundation says the community has come together to raise about $1.4 Million dollars.

This year – their key project is renovating the NICU.

“This year we’re very excited about our NICU being able to be redesigned and remodeled. We’ve had a shift in the market in this region that has really transformed the care that we’re able to provide to many more of our babies and our moms, so we want to make sure we can ensure that for the future,” explains Aimee Kane, the St. Francis Foundation President.

It’s been over 40 years since the NICU had a remodel this big. St. Francis has the region’s only Level III NICU, and that means families with sick children are able to stay close to home instead of driving to Jackson, MS; Little Rock, AR; or Baton Rouge.

“So what we’re planning to do is re-do our level II side specifically which is where our feeders and growers are, babies that are getting ready to go home, so we’re looking forward to being able to make those rooms more patient-centered, family-focused so that we can keep moms and dads together with their babies, do some one-on-one education,” explains Christa Lewis, the senior director of women’s and children’s services.

Lewis says they’re also going to increase their “rooming-in” rooms to about five of them so parents can stay at St. Francis. She says they want to add more semi-private areas too for parents to be as comfortable as possible.

This year, Ouachita Valley Federal Credit Union is getting more involved with the raffle as a presenting sponsor. Their continued support is something Jessica Nugent says she is challenging other businesses to do as well.

“Absolutely, we can have a battle here in our area with all the banks and credit unions and we’d love to do that,” says Nugent. “You know we have lots of financial institutions across our area and I urge them to get involved help out the community help out St. Francis and the foundation and do something awesome for our community.”

You can get tickets online or at the St. Francis Medical Center Gift Shop, the St. Francis Community Health Center, and the St. Francis Medical Building in Ruston. Each ticket is $50.

If you buy a ticket ONLINE ONLY between now and September 9th at noon, you’ll be entered into the Creed & Creed Early Bird Special for a chance to win $5,000 cash. The drawing for that happens on September 9th at 5 p.m.

Raffle sales continue through October 7th at midnight and two winners will be drawn on October 12th at 6 p.m. right here live on KNOE.

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