Island Kiwanis Club holds another Supermarket Sweep at Winn-Dixie
The Pine Island Kiwanis Club has teamed up with Winn-Dixie to host the fourth annual Supermarket Sweep. The winner, retired fire captain Rich Crotty, let his wife, Marty, perform the actual run through the store.
“I’m just excited that my husband was able to help the Kiwanians and hopefully I’ll be able to help a few people on the island with what I’m able to do here,” Crotty said.
Her plan for the winning run, she said, was to help out some families with groceries for the Thanksgiving holiday, in addition to purchasing some of Winn-Dixie’s food bags to give to the Food Pantry.
Kiwanian Cindy Bickford said she was impressed, though not surprised, that the first thing Crotty grabbed on her run were items for other people.
“At the end, she had a few dollars left, so I ran with her and we got canned goods for the Food Pantry. It was about $40 over, but Kiwanis covered that,” Bickford said.
In the end, every winner has always given something back, which is very typical for Pine Island, she said.
The idea originally for the event came from another group of Kiwanians who came for a meeting from another state and said they had done a Supermarket Sweep to raise funds. Bickford recalls thinking that might be a great event for the Pine Island Kiwanis Club to take on.
Local Kiwanians were counting on Winn-Dixie store manager Dan Loughren, who is always ready to help out the community in any way possible, and together, they’ve turned this event into an annual tradition. By loaning the store for the game, in this case, before it was even open for business, Loughren helped set the stage for another Supermarket Sweep event, with more than just one winner.
“Winn-Dixie is proud to help a great organization like the Kiwanis Club in any way we can and we love being a part of the Supermarket Sweep. I believe this is the fourth one that we’ve done,” Loughren said.
Bickford looks forward to future runs where islanders help one another win with what she describes as an easy and fun idea.
“It doesn’t take a ton of people to run it. You just have to sell your tickets and that’s really it. I think we made over $2,500 profit. We do pay for the groceries and still, we made over $2,500 just by selling the tickets for $10 a ticket,” Bickford said.
The run is planned for the Monday before each Thanksgiving holiday, she said, so winners can count on some free groceries for their table, and in Pine Island, usually for others as well.