Since 1995, the Liberal Democrat Christmas Draw has been an annual fundraiser for hundreds of Lib Dem local parties, SAOs and other groups.
The Lib Dem Christmas Draw has been run by a team of volunteers since 1995 and in that time, we have raised well over half a million pounds for local parties and central Lib Dem funds. Along the way over 800 fantastic prizes have been won by our members and supporters, their families and friends.
The tradition of picking up books of tickets at conference and then sending and selling them to members and supporters across the area, receiving back the ticket stubs and sending them off to the draw organisers has become almost as much part of the festive season for some (cough) as the moment of happiness in January when a cheque arrived for your commission on the sale of the tickets.
But time moves on, and the magic of Christmas was fading. Fewer and fewer books were being sold, and less local parties taking part as the, and this is a technical term, “faff” of getting, posting out and handling tickets seemed to increasingly outweigh the potential returns.
Also, some of the key organisers – all volunteers – were set on stepping away. It’s fair to say the Draw would have folded many years ago without the efforts of people like Gwen Backhurst and Jonathan Gainey-Brown. By 2017 it became clear that this was to be their last year managing the Draw, and with no-one else prepared to take on the work they had put in, it looked set to be its last year.
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