$100 FOR A DREAM HOUSE CHARITY RAFFLE OFFERS A CHANCE TO WIN A HOME, MONEY OR BOTH Charity raffle offers a chance to win a home, money or both.

Byline: Tony Castro, Staff Writer

Ed Bolden is hardly a snake oil salesman, but you can't blame anyone who thinks he's selling something that seems too good to be true.

Bolden is pitching a dream house valued up to $600,000 for $100.

"The house of your choice could be the house of your choice," he says. "It could be in Virginia or it could be in Maine."

And all it costs is a hundred bucks?

The catch is that the $100 is the cost of a raffle ticket.

Bolden, 81, is the founder of the Santa Clarita Valley Rotary Club's "House of Your Choice" fundraiser designed to give the lucky winner a big financial leg up during the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

"We see the real winners being the charities that this fundraising will help," says Bolden, a longtime Santa Clarita resident and chairman of the Samuel Dixon Family Health Centers, one of the beneficiaries of the "House of Your Choice" event.

Other nonprofit organizations benefitting from the fundraiser are Carousel Ranch, a nonprofit that offers disabled and disadvantaged children the chance to ride horses, and the Rotary Foundation, which assists numerous charities in the area.

Fundraising has been brisk in the last two weeks, Bolden said, and is expected to build up leading to a drawing in November.

To make it even more tempting, the raffle winner will get a lot of help in getting off to a good start in his or her new home, Bolden said.

The auction winner will also receive an additional $400,000 to help cover taxes and closing costs.

"We want to make sure that whoever moves into their new house does so without any problems," said Bolden.

"There are a million raffles of every kind. But so many become impossible for the winner to benefit from as they don't have the extra money to pay the taxes owed on the prize and there are so many other financial problems that come up.

"What our Rotary has done is to develop a raffle that not only benefits our local community, but makes it easy for the winner to enjoy his winnings."

And if the total package of $1 million toward a new house isn't to the raffle winner's liking, Bolden said the lucky recipient can pick either $600,000 lump sum or $50,000 per year for 20 years.

"How can anyone go wrong?" he wonders.

Bolden said that the grand prize winner has 90 days to select a house and an additional 60 days to close escrow.

Full rules and program details are available at www.houseofyourchoice.org.

Bottom line, though, says Bolden, is that the needy will get badly needed help.

Although three different nonprofit groups will reap the money raised, Bolden makes no secret about the charity closest to his heart.

"I'm an advocator of the Samuel Dixon Family Health Centers," he said.

The centers serve 8,000 medical visits a year at three locations, Bolden said, and the numbers are climbing as the uninsured or under-insured population increases in the current climate.

"In the last six months, the numbers have been growing at a tremendous rate compared to previous years for this period," he said, "and we think it's because of unemployment and the economics of today.

"The need is getting worse."

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Photo:

Edward Bolden, left, and Mike Thomas, president of the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita Valley in Newhall.

Dean Musgrove Staff Photographer