TROY – A grand prize raffle ticket worth $500 in prizes will be drawn Friday by Troy University education students in an effort to raise money for three Mississippi school systems damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The TROY chapters of the Association for Childhood Education International and Kappa Delta Pi, an education honor society, have been hosting the raffle to benefit school districts in Gulfport, Pascagoula and Poplarville.

The money earned in the raffle will be used to purchase supplies for the schools that were heavily damaged during the storm, said Heather Lunsford, ACEI president and KDPi vice president.

“Over 40 businesses from all over the Troy area have opened their hearts and donated more than $1,000 worth of goods and services,” she said.

In addition to the $1 tickets, the students have also painted faces and held a bake sale to help meet the $3,000 goal, said Danielle Butts, a senior elementary education major and an ACEI officer. Through Monday, the two groups had raised about $1,200.

“We should raise another $2,000 by the end of the week,” she said. “We have more than 30 people selling tickets.”

Fifty runner-ups will also win a prize and the University department that buys the most raffle tickets will be treated to homemade goodies made by education majors on campus.

“We became involved with helping these school districts because we got online, found out their numbers and email addresses, and contacted them to see what they needed to help,” said Lunsford.

Butts said after contacting school officials, the groups will send a cash donation earmarked for each school for teaching supplies and textbooks.

“The schools sent us a list of supplies that they needed – and there was a lot on those lists,” she said. “It’s really up to those schools’ discretion what they spend the money on.”

The drawing for the grand prize and the 50 runner-up prizes will take place at 12:30 p.m. Friday in the Amphitheatre, located between the Adams Center and Wallace Hall on the Troy campus. Raffle tickets will be sold and cash donations accepted from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday.