Giving spirit

Yuletide is also raffle season. Companies give away gifts as part of their holiday celebration.

A local fuel retailer is raffling off cars to its motorist patrons. Customers are given numbered raffle stubs when they fill up at any of its gas stations nationwide. The minimum purchase to get one raffle coupon is P1,500.

The raffle draw will be held next month, and 12 winners can take home either a Hyundai Tucson, Stargazer, or Creta. Those whose raffle stubs are not drawn still have a chance to win a car in the second draw on the last day of the year.

Winning a car is also possible by participating in TV contests. However, a 16-year-old girl from El Reno, Oklahoma, USA, won a car in an unusual raffle.

Gabriella Bonham was in a hotel room during a family trip when she received a call informing her that she had won a white 2016 Volkswagen Beetle in a raffle she joined last year.

The car owner wanted to give it away, and her friends helped pick the raffle winner on 15 September.

Diane Sweeney of Oklahoma City died on 7 July 2022, and her last wish was to give her Beetle to someone who attended her funeral.

"She always had a giving spirit," said Sweeney's nephew, Rick Ingram, Fox News Digital reported.

Ingram announced the funeral raffle in the local newspaper, and Bonham was among 100 strangers who came to pay their respects and try their luck. The teenager is not a relative nor an acquaintance of Sweeney, but got to know about the deceased's life and kindness from a slideshow presented during the funeral.

Bonham filled out a raffle ticket as she left the wake. The raffle draw only happened in September after Ingram settled Sweeney's estate to allow the car to be given away, according to FND.

The raffle winner went to Oklahoma City to pick up her prize.