Sandra Oliver

slideshow

LUMBERTON — One lucky fair-share giver will soon receive a late Christmas present.

The 16 finalists in the United Way’s seventh annual Car Giveaway will gather at 6 p.m. Thursday at Biggs Park Mall to learn who will be given the keys to a new set of wheels. The agency encourages people to come and watch, and will be offering giveaways to attendees.

“It’s really a fun thing,” said Sandra Oliver, the executive director of the United Way of Robeson County. “It’s almost like one of the game shows. All 16 people truly qualify for that car but only one can win it.”

The finalists’ names were chosen from a basket filled with the names of more than 1,000 fair-share givers over a period of eight weeks. A fair share is defined as one hour’s worth of pay a month.

After a reverse-raffle, the last person standing will pick an envelope, which will tell that person what car he or she has won — a Chevrolet Sonic, Nissan Versa, Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris.

The cars come from participating dealerships Lumberton Honda, Lumberton Chevrolet, Lumberton Nissan and Peterson Toyota.

“We’re really excited that the dealers have continued to do this and we really appreciate what they’ve done because it adds an element of fun to what we do but it also helps bring in money for those 18 agencies we are partnering with,” Oliver said. “It’s so good for our county.”

Finalists are Samantha D. Locklear; Edith A. Hunt; Rhonda French; Kenny Brock; Connie Locklear; Tiffany Moore; Roy Jacobs; John Astle; Danny Chavis; Jason Sanchez; Samantha Lowry; Heath Worriax; Christy McMillan; Francina Southern; James McNair; and Roberta Matthews.

Oliver said the number of fair-share givers rose slightly this year.

“For many folks they work and they want to give back to the community and this is the way that they can give back when they sometimes don’t have time to do the volunteer work they’d like to do,” Oliver said. “They realized the services in our county are dependent on those funds.”

The United Way’s campaign goal is $725,000. That money is distributed to 18 local agencies that provide human services.