The Columbus Regional Health Foundation hopes the 22nd annual installment of its Reverse Raffle will be a hypnotic experience.
With this year’s tongue-in-cheek name, “HIPnotic,” as the theme, the raffle is an annual effort to raise about $150,000 to help the foundation fund VIMCare, which serves patients in the state’s HIP 2.0 program, a Medicaid program, or other local residents who are uninsured.
The event will be at The Commons, 300 Washington St., at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10.
TG Rivers, who is known for entertaining audiences by hypnotizing volunteers from the crowd and sometimes entire audiences themselves, performs his shows at comedy clubs, schools and universities, conferences and corporate events.
Rivers, who made a midlife career change from business to hypnotherapy nearly a decade ago, got started when a client asked him to do the entertainment at a corporate Christmas party.
Now, the majority of his work is on the entertainment side of things although he continues a hypnotherapy practice on the north side of Indianapolis.
For the VIMCare benefit show, Rivers will ask for volunteers from the audience and will “get their imagination going,” he said.
“It’s comedy hypnosis,” he said of what he’ll be asking hypnotized volunteers to do when a trigger is tripped — typically by the use of specific words or music.
Rivers is known for getting his subjects up and dancing, sometimes into the crowd, when a certain musical trigger is played.
“Most will go with the suggestions, as long as it’s in their personal beliefs and moral boundaries,” he said of the show. “You can’t take somebody beyond their belief system with hypnosis.”
DJ for the event will be Alan Trisler.
Besides this year’s new location, gourmet food stations will be set up to allow guests to customize their dining experience with an appetizer, main course and dessert selections provided by First Class Catering and Icing on the Cake.
The highlight of the event is the raffle, in which one individual in the crowd wins $10,000. It’s a reverse raffle, meaning everyone gets out their tickets, and losing numbers are announced one at a time until the last person standing is declared the raffle winner.
Last year’s Reverse Raffle event raised $158,500, just above the event’s goal, attracting 460 people.
About 70 percent of VIMCare’s funding now comes from state and federal health care reimbursement programs, but the foundation continues to rely on fundraising and donations to make up the difference to fund an annual $1.4 million clinic budget.
Corporate sponsorships, ranging from $150 to $15,000 and above, are available by contacting the foundation at 812-376-5100.
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What: 22nd Annual Columbus Regional Health Reverse Raffle
When: 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10
Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St.
How much: Single seats, $170; two seats for couples, $240; full table (eight seats) $1,200.
To register: Visit https://support.foundation.crh.org/pages/raffle
For more information: Call 812-376-5100 or email [email protected].
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