If you haven't bought a ticket to the Brentwood Lottery yet, time is running out.
Sales close at midnight Wednesday night and with just 20,000 tickets sold, the fundraiser is far behind its goal of at least 25,000. Brentwood Recovery Home Administrator Mark Lennox is hoping for a last minute surge in sales. "I talked to three people between 6:30 and 7:30 this morning. All three of them said the same thing," he says. "They had meant to purchase tickets and went, 'oh goodness, I almost forgot.'"
Brentwood gets some of its funding from the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network, but Lennox says it may be unwise to expect increased funding to support addiction programs in Windsor-Essex. "They're under huge pressure as well with the new mega hospital coming in and with the aging baby boomers."
Lennox says 1,080 people sought treatment for addiction at Brentwood over the past year, including a new adolescent program. "We started piloting it about two years ago, and it's starting to expand, but at this point we simply can't due to financial constraints."
Brentwood has to raise 2/3 of its funding in the community. If the lottery sells 30,000 tickets, it will raise $500,000 for programs.