Chase the Ace Inverness to start a new round on Saturday

It's back. The wildlypopular Chase the Ace fundraiser in Inverness, N.S., will kick off on Nov. 21 at the local legion with a starting jackpot of $5,000 a far cry from the final jackpot of the previous draw, which netted the winner almost $1.8 million.

Chase the Ace is something like a 50-50 draw. But instead of winning half the value of the ticket sales, the winning ticket holder receives a smaller cut of the take and a chance to draw the ace of spades from a deck of regular playing cards to win the jackpot.

When the draws are held, half of the money raised goes to the organization behind the draw, 20 per cent goes to the weekly winner and 30 per cent is funnelled into the big prize. The jackpot builds until someone does draw the ace of spades.

'Why would we not do it again?'

Inverness Legion vice-president and Chase the Ace chairCameronMacQuarriesays this is the third round of Chase the Ace hosted by the Inverness Cottage Workshop and the legion.The first round, which started in 2013, netted the two groups about $20,000each.

The second one started with a jackpot of $2,000in October2014.A year later, it snowballed into a phenomenon that drew international attention and unprecedented crowds to the community of about 19,000.

MacQuarriesaid he doesn't expect this effort to be as popular.

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"It will generate whatever it does generate.And again, we'll be just putting those resources back into our community, soas far as I'm concerned, it's kind of more like, why would we not do it again?" he said.

The most recent Chase the Ace draw ended up with a jackpot of almost $1.8 million. Organizers have tallied up the net earnings from the fundraiser and itstwo sponsors,the Inverness Legion and the Inverness Cottage Workshop, haveeach received cheques for more than $1.27 million.

MacQuarriesaidsome of the legion's take will go toward renovations to its building and future expenses.He saidthe rest will be donatedto other non-profit groups in the community, but those groups haven't been selected yet.

"We will look at the requests as they come in,but we certainly are in a very good place.We never have been in a financial situation like this before, but the legion stands for our communities and we'll certainly give back," he said.

MacQuarrie saidthe legion has already received about a dozen requests for donations.

Funds offer'apath to the future'

The executive director of the Inverness Cottage Workshop,CindyO'Neil,says the original Chase the Ace fundraiser was indescribable.

"There are no words to describe how it feels to be handed a chequefor more than a million dollars.It's beyond what we ever, evercould have hoped for.It's thrilling, it's exciting, it's a path to the future," she said.

The workshopis a non-profit vocational agency foradults with intellectual disabilities.O'Neilsaid the Chase the Acemoney"puts a dent" in the organization's $3.5 million dollar renovation project for a new building.

She saidthe $1.27million will cover phase one, which she hopes will start soon, allowing the centre's clients to move into the new space.

In the meantime, she saidthe workshop staff are looking forward to launching a new round of Chase the Ace.