For One Winner, Super Seats for Super Cheap

10/16/2012 

With $100, you can almost afford one of the newest iPod nanos from Apple. Or, for the same amount, you can earn a shot at an all-inclusive Super Bowl trip for two to New Orleans.

The Cortland College Foundation is selling a limited number of raffle tickets for a chance to win an expenses-paid trip to Super Bowl XLVII. Only 500 tickets will be sold at $100 apiece.

The College acquired the two Super Bowl tickets through its close ties with the NFL’s New York Jets, which uses SUNY Cortland campus as its official summer training camp.

All of the money raised from the Super Bowl drawing will go exclusively to the Cortland College Foundation scholarship fund, said Kimberly Pietro, the College’s vice president for institutional advancement.

“This is an incredibly unique opportunity for our students, our alumni and friends of SUNY Cortland,” Pietro said. “The raffle offers the chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for one winner, but more importantly it means many of our students win with scholarship dollars.”

One lucky raffle participant will receive the deluxe Super Bowl package, worth more than $3,000. The grand prize includes two tickets to the Feb. 3 game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a four-night hotel stay and $1,000 for transportation and other expenses.

“Not many other colleges can offer a grand prize of this magnitude,” Pietro said. “We’re very fortunate to have this partnership with the New York Jets.”

Last year, George Breen ’56, of Sewell, N.J., won the raffle. He attended a back-and-forth thriller between the New York Giants and New England Patriots in Indianapolis, Ind., with his wife, Christine.

Breen, an Olympic medalist in swimming, called the three-day trip “as good as anything I’ve ever done.”

“Sitting there, taking everything in, I couldn’t believe it happened because of a $100 ticket,” he said while recapping the experience last winter. “To have a chance at something like the Super Bowl and to have all of the money go to scholarships, I’m surprised those tickets don’t sell out in a day.”

This year’s drawing will be held on Friday, Dec. 21. Raffle participants must be at least 18 years of age to purchase a raffle ticket.

Those interested in buying a raffle ticket should send their payment with name, home address, phone number and an email address to Sheila Morse, the financial operations specialist for the Cortland College Foundation, at P.O. Box 2000, Cortland, NY 13045. Checks should be made payable to Cortland College Foundation, Inc.

For more information, contact Morse at (607) 753-2532.