Sheriff’s office holding gun raffle benefiting Most family

OREGON — Kevin Most struggled for words to describe what the community support his family has received over the last few weeks means.

“It’s just unbelievable the amount of support people have been giving,” said Most, whose wife, Amber, recently was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The Oregon couple have a 7-year-old daughter, Addi.

The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office, where Most is a detective, has sold around 2,000 raffle tickets as part of a fundraiser for the Most family. Winners will be drawn March 1.

“As an agency, we wanted to support one of our members and families that’s obviously going through a very difficult time,” Sheriff Brian VanVickle said. “We have health insurance, but there’s certainly going to be out-of-pocket costs to get Amber healthy. Our goal is to raise awareness of that and let them focus on Amber getting healthy.”

Among the prizes are three guns — a Glock 19, 9mm; a IWI Zion-15 Rifle, 5.56 caliber; and a Weatherby 12 gauge shotgun.

Winners of the guns are subject to federal firearms licensing standards and must have a firearm owner’s identification card, VanVickle said. That process will be done by the local firearms dealer providing the guns, he said, adding that the sheriff’s office won’t have anything to do with that.

Part of the cost of the guns will be donated, and part will be covered by raffle ticket sales, VanVickle said.

Lindsey Hagerman, owner of Carry On Range in Rock Falls, helped out selling raffle tickets on Feb. 5 with an associated fundraiser at her Dixon-based business, Freedom Motor Sports of Illinois.

“I’d seen that they were doing a gun raffle, and just with our community that we have there, everyone loves a good gun raffle, so I thought, ‘Why not bring it to Dixon to our new business?’” she said. “The range is closed right now for construction anyway.

“[It’s] just a way to help out our brothers in blue,” Hagerman added. “We’re family-based, so we’re also community-based.”

The fundraiser at Freedom Motor Sports ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. By 12:45, about 100 people had come through and most of the 50 raffle tickets on hand had been sold, Hagerman said.

“It’s not just Ogle County, but outside Ogle County,” Most said. “It’s just crazy the amount of support we’ve been getting. A lot of that is the hard work everyone has been doing.”

Most said he and his family are taking it day-by-day.

“There’s no way you can say the amount of thank-yous that are needed,” he said.

As of Tuesday, the other prizes include:

• Headon’s: ribeyes, New York strips, ground chuck and brats;
• Turf RX: four-step lawn treatment;
• Calhoun Plumbing: Pro100 water softener system, including installation;
• Patchwork Inn Bed & Breakfast in Oregon: one-night stay.

Raffle tickets are $20 and are available for sale at the sheriff’s office administrative building, located at 202 South 1st St., in Oregon. If you are unable to make it to the administrative building, contact the sheriff’s office through Facebook, VanVickle said.

How raffle winners will be announced or notified still is being determined, he said.