Chantal Morton is already thinking about firing up her new Harley. Photos 250 News

Prince George, B.C. – She hasn’t ridden for about twelve years but that’s about to change for Chantal Morton of Prince George.

She’s the winner of the top prize in the Prince George Firefighters and Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation’s 2016 Harley Raffle, a brand new Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle.  Chantal’s ticket, number 3458 of the total 3500 tickets that were available to be sold, was drawn at the Harley Davidson shop on Vance Road Saturday afternoon.

Ken Coombs of Quesnel won second prize, a $500 Harley Davidson gift certificate, and Talwinder Sidhu of Terrace won a $250 gift certificate.

Chantal had an interesting bit of information.  “I won a Harley in 1998 through the firefighters in Castlegar.  I was living in Langley at the time and my boyfriend bought me a ticket.  We went on a toy run to Castlegar and went to the firefighters’ hall where the draw was being held, but I never heard my name being drawn.”

“Someone came up to my brother-in-law and said, “congratulations you sold the winning ticket, you win a hundred dollars”.   My brother-in-law said who won the bike?  And he said a lady named Chantal Morton, and I was standing right there and I said “that be me!”

Asked if she has ridden lately Chantal says “well, a firefighter here in Prince George bought my bike for his wife, I think it’s been about twelve years.  But I still have my leathers and all my gear.”  So, is she going to ride her new $20,199 bike?  “I’m going to have to probably do a little practicing before I do that, but I will.  I have friends that have Harleys and they’re more than happy to help me out and ride again, so I’m gonna be doing that.  It’s wonderful.”

This year’s Harley Raffle was a sellout, raising $70,000 for healthcare in the north.  As Greg Houston, member of the Prince George Firefighters and Spirit of the North board director noted “this is the 19^th successful raffle for the foundation.”  “We sold out right around noon (Friday) so we had a great run on tickets and I think everyone’s really happy with the way everything went for us.”

Firefighters Harley committee chair Greg Houston presents $70,000 cheque to Healthcare Foundation CEO Judy Neiser

“I really want to thank all the firefighters that have come out to seel tickets for us.  This is all done on our volunteer time, on our days off and on the weekends so we put in about 5 or 6 hundred man hours selling tickets.”

Spirit of the North CEO Judy Neiser sid the money raised through the raffle goes to the purchase of the Optos SLO System.  “The Optos equipment is something that pretty much everyone is going to need in their lives.  It fixes everything from detached retinas to any kind of optical damage to the eyes.  Anyone that’s affected with diabetes goes through these kinds of machines.”

“This equipment didn’t come cheap and the American dollar was not in our favor.  When we started to raise the funds for it (the cost) was around $200,000 and of course with the American dollar, everyone knows what that’s like so it’s actually going for around $230,000 right now.”

“But this amount of money seals the deal so the equipment is ordered but this was the final funding that went toward this equipment.”  She thanked the firefighters, and the people who bought tickets, “for making this happen.”