Wow - did you see the amount of land with the house too! Too fancy for me, but like someone said, you can alway put the house back on the market after you win it! Besides there are some cash prizes too - and think of the care packages you could send with those!!!

I will get my ticket at mid Sept payday. I have have 2 mortgages to pay this next week (for the two houses that I already have here in Colorado) and can't swing the ticket this payday without starving the family!

Kathryn M 

PS: Does anyone live in that local area that would do a little publicity work for the raffle? I would think that local residents would just jump at a chance to win the house even if they have never heard of Anysoldier. 

What AS needs is National Exposure, I sent an email to Oprah hoping to get her to do a show on AS  about a month ago but never heard anything back.   How about everyone sending a letter to the popular talk shows or a major newspaper maybe then someone would donate a substantial amount of money to keep it going.

Mary

Surely the Maryland tv stations would put at least a small promotion on some of their local news or other shows, and the same I would think with the newspapers in the area.  Maybe even some realtors might want to get in on the promotion?

Gran

I just got the email! This is crazy! Those people who donated their house are so nice!  That is just amazing!

From my review of the documentation on AnySoldier, I got the impression that the house is not donated, but that the owners will be compensated at a certain amount from the proceeds of ticket sales and any excess in ticket sales will go to AnySoldier.  Perhaps that's what Marty means when he says this can make or break the company--AnySoldier is obligated to compensate the owners at a given level and AnySoldier only gets what is in excess of that level.  Frankly I can't imagine anyone being in the position where they can donate a house valued at $835,000!  If the arrangement is as I've posited, I see nothing wrong with it and I hope it succeeds.  Like I said, I've already bought a ticket!

Valerie is correct.  The owners did not (can not) donate the house, but have donated the rights to sell it.  This is the usual way these things go, and we have had lawyers and mortgage wizards working this since March to be sure it is all correct and legal, then had to get State approval.

The make or break is not just to pay for the house, it also raises funds for this company that is in critical shortage.  Still, only about 4% of the people that use this site help support it, the other 96% come up with the most unique excuses not to.

We appreciate all those who support this company, and the troops.

so Marty, is AS then promoting this nationally or at least in the DC/Maryland area?? anything? It sounds so risky that I cannot believe we could only rely on the forums here   -- is there anything else that we can do to raise money if this does NOT go through (not being negative,, I am just a plan B person) like have statewide fundraisers or something,, even if small since lots of smalls add up:) -- I have some small ideas that if done nationwide could REALLY help  I bet. but some have to be done in warm weather

Anything you can do to reassure us? I donate montly Marty [going back to a thread started in January],, I just cannot afford a $100 off the bat.. at least not now.. but I so want to help...

Lynn

We are working this all over the globe.  You will find mention of this raffle in places you might not expect, but we still need your help in spreading the word.  Chances are REAL good this won't be our only house raffle  ;)

Any Soldier Inc. is going nowhere but up....how could we do less?

Thanks for making me breathe a bit easier:) The thought of this organization going away kills me.

I sent it off to our local CBS/Fox station,, they do a lot of military coverage. I would send it to the other nations, but honestly this is the # 1 watched station and really does do more stories about the military. AFter all NC is a very strong military state.. all I can do is try!!

Lynn

I'm glad to see you developed a downloadable flyer, but I'm disappointed in the content.  There's nothing describing the house!  I would much prefer to use a flyer with a house (and land) description and a couple more pictures.  Also, it would be very advisable to have a black and white version!

 I cannot open the link to the press release to see if it's more what I had in mind in terms of public info.  I get a "page not found" error message.

Another p.r. idea:  develop a small public info piece that prints 4 to a page (black and white, too) that we can print out, cut up, and distribute.  Many of us are very thrifty people who even watch their computer paper and ink "budgets"!  Would still prefer it have a house description and at least one picture.

Great ideas, thanks!

I did another flyer handout, at the moment has 2 copies per page with house description.  If you want a B&W version, just tell your printer to print in "Greyscale" mode....it will look a LOT better than B&W and will save the color cartridges......

I'll see if I can squose 4 onto a page.....

As to the press release broken link...sorry, fixed...

OK, new one has 4 parts.

In Internet Explorer (version 7 anyway) do a print preview and set the view to "Shrink to Fit", tell your printer to run in Greyscale mode (if you have to) and fire away.  May I suggest that you print these in "Fast Draft" or "Fast Normal" in color and you will use very little ink and the prints still look good.......