The 18th annual STARS Lottery officially launches today with 3,200 prizes worth over $5.1 million. The STARS Lottery is the single largest source of funding to keep STARS in the sky.

“Last year’s STARS Lottery sold out generating over $10 million,” says Dr. Greg Powell, President and CEO of STARS. “Every individual who purchases a ticket helps us continue to carry out our mission of caring for critically ill and injured patients.”
The STARS Lottery includes five grand prizes worth over $3.6 million retail, including four beautiful show homes in Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton and Lethbridge. The fifth prize is a ‘home away from home’ truck and trailer worth $123,700.

There are also two exceptional early bird packages to be won including a $100,000 cash prize, and a 2011 Mercedes GLK350 with three-night Las Vegas vacation package for two at the luxurious Mandalay Bay Hotel, plus $5,000 cash.

In addition to the grand and early bird prizes, there are 10 vehicles, 30 vacations, 1,879 electronic prizes, 450 cash prizes and 1,224 other prizes including jewellery and luggage. Two lucky winners can also enjoy a flight of a lifetime aboard a STARS helicopter alongside a STARS crew.

“STARS has flown more than 20,000 missions since we began in 1985, providing rapid access to emergency medical care and transport for the critically ill and injured,” says Dr. Powell.“Our way of saying ‘thank you’ was to place a special logo on the pilots’ doors on each helicopter to express our heartfelt appreciation for 25 years of community support.”

STARS provides service 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the familiar red BK117 helicopters from bases in Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie. The anticipated arrival this year of the new AW139 helicopter will allow STARS to respond even farther and faster than before.

Lottery tickets are $25 each, 5 for $100 and 15 for $250 and are available by visiting http://www.starslottery.ca/index.php or by calling 1-888-880-0992. Ticket buyers are eligible for all 3,200 prize draws. After each draw, winning tickets go back into the drum for the next prize draw. There are 50,000 single tickets for sale, 106,000 sets of 5 for $100 and 21,000 sets of 15 for $250 for a total of 895,000 tickets.

The early bird draw is March 16, 2011, with ticket sales cut off March 2, 2011 at midnight. The final draw is set for April 13, 2011 with ticket cut-off at midnight on March 23, 2011. If tickets sell out early, all prizes will be drawn on the early bird draw on March 16, 2011 with permission from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. The lottery license number is 302375.