Northern Ont. hospital hopes to cash in on Taylor Swift tickets

Elliot Lake draw for Taylor Swift tickets A northern Ontario hospital is raffling off a pair of tickets to see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Toronto.

The Eras Tour has become one of the hottest concerts of all time and now tickets to see Taylor Swift are being used to help a northern Ontario hospital.

St. Joseph’s Foundation of Elliot Lake is hoping to cash in with a pair of donated premium tickets to one of the performer's six Toronto shows with a 'Swift Sweepstakes.'

"We’ve been very, very fortunate to have been gifted by Edward and Suzanne Rogers a pair of tickets to the Taylor Swift; The Eras Tour Concert, which is going to be on Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto," said William Elliott, the health care foundation's fundraising chair.

"We’re giving away a pair of premium seats and $1,000 cash. It won’t be too hard to find a friend if you have a spare Taylor Swift ticket, I’m pretty sure."

Elliott said the foundation approached Suzanne Rogers, a former Elliot Lake resident, about the tickets and she was happy to help.

"We’ve been very fortunate, the community has always been very supportive of the foundation. The foundation supports the hospital, the Oaks Treatment Centre and the Mayor (the seniors' home)," he said.

"And we’re out there constantly trying to raise funds, constantly trying to find ways, something new and unique that somebody hasn’t seen before."

Originally, the foundation thought about doing an auction, but nixed the idea to give everyone a chance to win and not base it on who has the deepest pockets.

"I was surprised, we launched this (Monday) morning and almost immediately, a school friend of mine from back in the day immediately messaged me to say they had jumped in for the 300 ticket option," Elliot said.

"You never know, you can’t go by looks, you can’t go by age. Taylor Swift is such a phenomenon in the music industry. They said the other day her tour reduced inflation in London. We know it’s going to be big and so if we can send someone there … all the better."

Tickets are available for purchase online.

The deadline to buy sweepstakes tickets is October 15 at 11:59 p.m.