BATHURST man Leslie Ovington was doubly surprised when he heard he'd won an $80,000 dream car in a raffle.
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For one thing, he hadn't bought the tickets thinking he'd be the one to take out the prize.
And the other reason? "Honestly, I'd forgotten about the draw," he admitted on Friday as he took possession of his reward, a fully customised HSV Clubsport.
Mr Ovington bought $100 worth of tickets in the Australian Horizons Foundation's national Art Union 21 raffle and he got the good news last Sunday.
He was contacted personally by Troy Williams, owner of Eye Candy Motorsports, which is a corporate partner for the foundation.
"He [Mr Williams] said 'you've just won a car, mate' and I said 'surely not'," Mr Ovington said.
"I could not believe it."
The prize is the latest in the customised HSV Clubsport raffle series undertaken by Australian Horizons Foundation, a charity which aims to support rural communities suffering from problems including drought and water shortages.
Foundation CEO Neill Newton said the customised HSV Clubsport raffle had been run thanks to the support received from Troy Williams of Eye Candy and Matt Gollan of small business online marketplace Flash Market.
The proceeds from the raffle won by My Ovington - for which around 16,000 tickets were sold - will go to the Otis Foundation in Bendigo (which provides breast cancer retreats); Bendigo Rotary; Eat Up, which provides food to children in rural areas; and the Wiradyuri Rangers.
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Peter White, from the Wiradyuri Rangers, which operates out of Forbes, said the group will use its $20,000 from the raffle proceeds for a bus to be used for youth programs.
"We'll use it to take our youth around the countryside, including sacred sites, and teach them how to look after the environment and the fauna and flora and how to bring in cultural tourism," he said.
Mr Ovington said he won't be selling the car.
"I'm just going to enjoy it," he said.