King of the Basket Raffle

My seven year old son Cormac is the King of the basket raffle. He is literally the luckiest boy in the world when it comes to basket raffles, and his streak continued yesterday when he took home a basket from a raffle at his Cub Scouts' Blue and Gold Banquet. Even I find it a little spooky.

I remember the first time he participated in a basket raffle, it was at his preschool graduation. A number of parents and local businesses donated baskets of prizes and parents could but tickets, with all the cash going to the school. A buck bought an arm's length of tickets, which the kids could then put in little bags in front of the
baskets they wanted to win. There were a lot of baskets, so the odds of winning were pretty good. I don't remember what he won that day, but I'll never forget the look on his face when his ticket was announced.

Nor will I forget how he and I laughed until neither one of us could breathe the day he won the basket raffle at his sisters' dance recital. I gave him ten bucks that day for the raffle, which was a few baskets and then a 50/50 raffle at the end, with half the money going to the dance school and the other half going home with the winner. The understanding was that we would split the winnings, as I was investing my cash and he was investing his unbeatable luck. My Dad had bought a bunch of tickets, too, even though Cormac and I told him to save it because we were going to win.

We won. I forget the exact amount, but even after paying him I'd recouped my original ten and then some.

Well, last night he won again (as he has on at least three other occasions, bringing him baskets of action figures, coloring books, or, from the Science Fair at the school where my wife teaches, a big basket with a microscope and enough electrical experiments to keep Nicola Tesla busy for a week). The odds, much like the dance recital odds, were not good. He only had two tickets and there were about seventy kids investing on three prizes. He took the third prize which was a bath and body basket, with things like shampoos, scented candles, and bath salts. I thought it was kind of a weird thing to have for a group of Cub Scouts, who were mostly interested in first prize (a big snakeskin), but who am I to mock someone's charitable contribution (all proceeds went to the pack)?

Cormac, having a generous heart as well as generous luck, gave almost all of the loot to his sister Kayleigh, keeping only "bath confetti", whatever that is, for himself.

Hmmm. Generous spirit, generous luck. I wonder if there is a correlation?