The Newtown Blue & Gold Booster Club raffle – featuring a dream vacation to any one of many national sporting events – will be held Thursday, June 29, at 12 noon at the Washington Mutual Financial Center.

Raffle tickets are available at several Newtown locations, including Newtown Savings Bank, Village Barber, Sandy Hook Wine & Liquor, Newtown Deli,  The Drug Center, My Place Restaurant, Hawleyville Deli, Newtown Florist, Bagel Delite, Andrea’s Bakery, Coaches Deli, Berkshire Motors.

Visit nhsblueandgold.com for further info.

Stanley Cup? The Indianapolis 500? Or maybe the Kentucky Derby to sip mint juleps?

Well, one of those trips – and many more – will be made possible with the Newtown Blue & Gold Booster Club raffle.

The winner will have his or her choice of going to the Indianapolis 500, the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii, a BCS Bowl game, the Kentucky Derby, Daytona 500, Major League Baseball All Star Game, the NHL Stanley Cup, NBA All Star Game, NHL All Star Game, Ryder Cup, NBA Finals, U.S. Open Tennis, U.S Open golf tournament, the World Series, Florida Keys, St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands, Disney World, the Super Bowl or the NCAA Final Four.

Or choose an entirely different dream vacation destination (this option must be agreed upon with provider of gift certificate and is not limited to two people).

The raffle – at a cost of just $10 per ticket – is a major fundraiser for the Booster Club, which is working hard to install an artificial playing surface at Blue & Gold Stadium, which will benefit athletes all over town – from high school to youth athletics – as well as the high school band. The installation of the artificial playing surface will take a field that is utilized perhaps 100 hours a year and turn into a field that can be utilized literally seven days a week

Ticket sales have been sluggish so far, but Blue & Gold Booster Club president Dan Barrett hopes there will be a rally this month.

“The booster club supports the high school athletic department and its reasoning for dramatically reduced utilization,” said Mr Barrett, “however, the club also sees the need for the school and the town to make the maximum use of every playing field available.”

The booster club is also seeking to make improvements in restroom facilities, new seating and equipment storage spaces at Blue & Gold Stadium.

Tickets are $10 and the trips are valued at $6,500 and generally include eight days, seven nights (although Super Bowl and Final Four are five days, four nights) for two with two round-trip airline tickets, hotel accommodations, breakfast each morning, two reserved seat tickets to the event, car rental, tax & gratuities.