The Hockey Harvest Lottery had one grand prize winner and one early bird winner, but the real winners were the five scholarship funds for the province's Western Hockey League teams.

The five Saskatchewan based WHL teams collaborated on the lottery, which won Lynn Moe a whopping $185,365 in Monday's draw. Moe also happens to be the mother of Prince Albert Raiders forward Spencer Moe. 

James Gallo, director of hockey administration with the Warriors, liked the buy-in from the fans around the city and the province.

“The public does a great job, Warrior fans, Pat fans, Bronco fans, you name it, they’re so passionate about their teams that it really wasn’t surprising to see the money get raised,” Gallo said. “They want to do anything and everything to help out these teams and to help out these players.”

Major Warriors’ fundraising efforts this year, like the golf tournament, have been thwarted due to the pandemic, and this event will help soften that blow and help teams like the Warriors with their educational commitments to players.

“When you talk about all five Saskatchewan-based WHL teams and our education funds, everybody is kind of missing out on opportunities to raise money for the education fund and this is a great way for us to come together, work together and raise some money,” Gallo said. “For it to be just shy of $381,000, when the dust settles and we’re able to put our half in our bank account, it’s just amazing.”

Players will get one year of post-secondary education for each year in the Western Hockey League. A fundraiser like the alumni golf tournament can raise about $100,000 in a year, but that wasn’t able to happen in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The Warriors’ commitment to their players' education is between $115,000 and $130,000 a year, Gallo said.

“Without things like the nightly 50-50 during game days, without the alumni Warriors’ golf tournament, we needed to try and find avenues to try and help the education fund,” he said. “Again, players are still going to school and we still want to help them as much as we can…

“It was great to come together with the other four Saskatchewan-based WHL teams. Everyone had the same cause.”