PARKERSBURG - The winner of this year's Volunteer Action Center of the Mid-Ohio Valley's Harley Raffle has decided not to keep the vehicle.
Merrell O'Shea of Vienna won the 2011 Harley-Davidson Street Bob with Samson exhaust before the Charlie Daniels Band performance on Aug. 19 at the Parkersburg Homecoming. Charlie Daniels drew her ticket.
"I was very much surprised when they called my name," O'Shea said. "I never dreamed I would win it."
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Merrell O’Shea of Vienna, middle, poses with Debbie Poole, Volunteer Action Center board member who sold the winning ticket, left, and Kenny Hardy, general manager of S&P Harley-Davidson, with the motorcycle O’Shea won during the 2012 Parkersburg Homecoming.
O'Shea, who works for United Bank, said she plans to sell the motorcycle and not keep it.
"I'm not a big bike enthusiast," she said Monday. "There would be no point in me keeping it, since I have never ridden or even been on one."
The winning ticket was purchased as a way to help the Volunteer Action Center.
"I know this is their annual fundraiser and I was just doing my part to contribute to their work," O'Shea said.
Volunteer Action Center Executive Director Katy Sulfridge said the raffle sold 181 of the 300 available tickets, which did not meet the center's fundraising goal.
"We had a possible 300 tickets to sell and didn't do as well as we had hoped," she said. "We are now planning to work on different opportunities throughout the year to meet our goals."
Sulfridge said there were many reasons given by people polled by the Volunteer Action Center for not purchasing tickets for the motorcycle raffle.
"The reasons were across the board," she said. "From 'my wife wouldn't let me keep it' to 'we don't like motorcycles' and so many others."
One of the biggest reasons people cited for not purchasing a ticket was the cost. At $100 for a chance to win the motorcycle, the price may have been too steep, Sulfridge said.
"The price of the ticket was a big factor in people's decision to not buy," she said.
This was the fourth year the Volunteer Action Center has raffled a Harley-Davidson during the Parkersburg Homecoming. Sulfridge said the community might be looking for something else to vie for.
"I think our bikes have been very similar and the community is wanting something new for the raffle," Sulfridge said.
