WHO DAT won dem Chamber Saints tickets?
Published 9:08 am Monday, August 11, 2014
Bogalusa resident Jake Runfalo received a phone call bearing some exciting news Thursday evening.
It was from the Bogalusa Chamber of Commerce’s Marilyn Bateman letting him know that he had won the grand prize of the sixth annual Bogalusa Chamber of Commerce raffle. Runfalo won two New Orleans Saints season tickets in the club level, which includes parking.
“Coming home from Biloxi (Thursday) and Marilyn (Bateman) gives me a call,” Runfalo said. “The wife says, ‘what’s Marilyn Bateman doing calling you’? I said, ‘it can’t be but one thing. I won the Saints tickets.’”
He was right. Runfalo said he got on the phone with Bateman and went crazy with excitement.
“It was one of the luckiest days I’ve ever had right there,” Bateman said.
Runfalo has three season tickets in section 130, which is located in the end zone where the Saints come out for pre-game introductions.
The seats he won are in section 315 row 17, which is located in the club level at midfield above the opponents’ bench.
The person who sold Runfalo the tickets is Bogalusa board member Tina Lobrano.
“He just came in the office,” Lobrano said. “I told him, ‘hey, I’ve got three left, you’ve got to buy them.’ He went out to the car, got his checkbook and wrote me a check.”
Lobrano said Runfalo was excited when he called her.
The drawing took place Thursday evening at Yoyo’s in Bogalusa, as a gathering showed up for the drawing. Three-hundred seventy-three tickets were sold for $25 apiece.
Bogalusa Chamber of Commerce president Ramona Augustine said people like the fact that it’s two club seats in the club with free parking.
Augustine said the raffle helps run the chamber all year.
“We have to pay for the salaries and just the general electricity bills and phone bills,” Augustine said.
Augustine said this is the chamber’s biggest and most fun fundraiser of the year.
Runfalo will get to use his first ticket Friday, as the Saints host the Tennessee Titans in preseason action.
The regular season home opener is Sept. 21 against Minnesota.