Here are the winning numbers for the Save Our Shelters raffle:
 
The Grand Prize Winner of the basket:  Number 190
 
The 12 second-prize winners of ferret soap (umm, soap for people,
that is.  The soap is SHAPED like a ferret):
 
                            410
                            296
                             33
                            196
                            419
                            339
                            485
                            127
                             69
                            358
                            131
                             93
 
Ela Heyn will contact the winners and their names will be published in
the FML (with their permission, of course).  Congratulations to all!
 
How this worked:
Each contest entry was assigned a number by Ela.  There were 590 entries.
(Wow, that's great!)  Ela then sent the "master list" of numbers and names
to the other SOS organizers (Judith White and Georgia Wood).  I did not
receive or see the list.
 
The entrants each received a note from one of the SOS organizers containing
his/her number(s).
 
I was asked fairly early on if I would choose the winning numbers.  I
agreed, so I did not enter the contest.  To choose the numbers randomly I
was planning to number a bunch of raisins and let the ferrets choose, but
the thought of trying to figure out how to number 590 of those little
suckers and then trying to get them back from the ferrets before they
were eaten turned me off to that idea (much to the disappointment of the
ferrets, I'm sure).
 
So, I turned to the computer and wrote a little Rexx program to spit out
13 non-duplicated random numbers in that range.  It was only run once
(believe it or not, it ran the first time :-)).  The first number
displayed was the grand prize winner.
 
Bill
[Posted in FML issue 3480]