In 2021, STARS Air Ambulance flew 1075 missions across Saskatchewan. While the service receives funding from the provincial government, they still need to raise roughly $10.5 million each year to keep the helicopters in the air. The largest source of that funding comes through the annual STARS Lottery, which kicked off Thursday morning. 

“We say the STARS lottery is the lottery on a mission,” explained Mark Oddan, senior communications officer with STARS. “When you support the lottery, you really are supporting those missions that happen 24/7, 365 across Saskatchewan.” 

The money raised goes to help in a number of other ways as well. 

“It goes to support our operations with things like ensuring we have faster response times, cutting edge technology for our crews and continuous training for them,” Oddan added. 

This year, more than 2200 prizes are up for grabs, worth more than $4 million. There is even a new prize with an earlier deadline than the early bird deadline. This is the Bon Voyage bonus prize, which Oddan described as essentially $100,000 to travel the world with.  

There is also the early bird prize called choose your own adventure, with a retail value of $378,000. It includes a brand-new motorhome, a side-by-side, a $5000 Saskatchewan Parks gift card, a $3000 fuel car and $100,000 cash.  

The deadline for the bonus prize is June 9th, and the early bird ticket deadline is June 23rd.  

There is also the Lucky Stars 50/50, where the lucky winner could go home with up to $2.5 million. And, there are also grand prize show homes. There is a home in Regina and a home in Saskatoon. The one in Saskatoon is valued at more than $1.4 million and the Regina home at $1.3 million.  

The final ticket deadline for the main draws as well as the 50/50 is on July 14th. 

To purchase tickets, you can visit the STARS Lottery website, or call 1-844-782-7775.