IT took plenty of courage to be outdoors last Wednesday with temperatures in the mid 30s.

But Paul Dewar and Francis Betar did just that, setting up a makeshift stall in Hawks Nest to sell raffle tickets for their local church in Tea Gardens.

“The Raffle is all about trying to improve the acoustics in our Catholic Church Hall in Tea Gardens,” Paul Dewar told News Of The Area.

“We’ve found when we have community functions and church functions the acoustics are not very good and sometimes people can’t even hear themselves talk,” Paul said.

“We’ve been exploring the possibility of how we correct that problem, and we propose to put some type of acoustic block in the ceiling.”

But of course any renovation takes money.

‘’We have a 14 day South Pacific cruise on the Sea Princess for two which includes $400 on board spending money and second prize is two days, three nights in Katoomba plus a $100 spending money.”

‘’We generally sell them at the front of the church on Saturday and Sunday.”

Only 600 tickets are being sold and there’s not too many left.

The Catholic Church hall is available to anyone in the community who wishes to hire it.

It’s also vital during the busy holiday period when visitors swell the church-going numbers.

“It varies between 150 parishioners and of course during the holiday season we have upwards of 250 to 300 people at the church on the weekend,” Paul said.

The raffle, with a total prize value of $5,000 will be drawn Sunday 29 January.

By Margie TIERNEY