PORT ANGELES — Tina Breen won a golf ball Saturday.
Wrapped around it was a restored 1975 Toyota Celica.
Breen, who manages Landing’s Restaurant, won the “Helicopter Hole in One” fundraiser to help build a skateboard park in Port Angeles.
Karin Larson won second prize of $1,000. Julia Trussel won third prize of $500.
The Toyota Celica, value $7,500, was donated by Wilder Toyota/Wilder Auto Center of Port Angeles.
About 4,000 tickets with serial numbers matching the numbered golf balls were sold for the airborne event, but only about 70 people braved the wet, windy, chilly weather to sit and shiver in the Civic Field grandstand at noon to watch it.
On the field before them was a giant tarpaulin with a white circle in the center.
In the center of the circle was a hole big enough for a single golf ball.
At 12:03 p.m., a McDonnell-Douglas 500 helicopter from Olympic Air in Shelton fired up its turbine and rose from the Civic Field parking lot.
As it climbed into the air, it hoisted a net that held the balls.
It took about a minute for the chopper to hover over the circle — actually about 5 yards off center — and drop its load, sending balls bouncing off the tarp like hailstones.
When they all had come to rest, two men from the Nor’wester Rotary Club plucked the winning ball from the hole.
Second and third places were won by the balls closest and next-nearest to the hole, respectively.
Each ball’s number was matched against a ticket stub, and the winners were contacted by phone.
At $2 a ball, times about 4,000, minus the $1,000 and $500 prizes, the event raised around $6,500 for the skateboard park, bringing to about $117,500 raised so far for the $300,000 skatepark.
Major sponsors of the “Helicopter Hole in One,” in addition to Nor’wester Rotary, were John David Crow of Green Crow; Dan Wilder Sr. and Dan Wilder Jr. of Wilder Toyota/Wilder Auto Center; and Windermere Real Estate owner Terry Neske.
