Clyde Quay School raffled off two Taylor Swift tickets, including airfares to London, a week's accommodation and spending money. Photo: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen / ANP MAG / ANP via AFP
A woman who won tickets to see Taylor Swift in London after entering a Wellington primary school raffle has a new problem: who to take with her.
Clyde Quay School raised an astonsihing $112,500 to fix their hall by raffling off two Taylor Swift tickets, including airfares to London, seven night's accommodation and spending money.
The winner, Sarah Mcllroy, was announced on Tuesday.
Mcllory told Midday Report she was a big fan of Swift and the win came as an amazing surprise.
"I never win anything. I bought this ticket because I heard it advertised as a promo... and I thought what an amazing fundraiser because I've been a parent on many PTAs trying to raise money and I thought that's just a great thing to support, so I seriously bought a ticket just to help the school and I never dreamed of winning," she said.
"I'm just feeling incredibly fortunate."
Mcllory said she was still deciding who to take with her.
"It's been tricky and it's still up for negotiation at the moment, there's a short list now so we're just working on that."
Clyde Quay School's parent-teacher association (PTA) chairperson, Phernne Tancock, said fundraising was tricky in the current economic environment and it was necessary to think outside the box.
The school usually ran a travel raffle each year, but with Taylor Swift fever sweeping the country, the PTA joked that tickets to one of her concerts would be a more tempting prize.
What started as a joke soon became reality when a member of the PTA managed to source two of the highly sought-after premier tickets through a concierge friend in London.
"Once we knew we had the golden tickets of our era, we pooled our bake-sale money and the rest is history."
Tickets sold for $25 each.
All proceeds would go towards an upgrade of their school hall, which would have toilets and a kitchen installed.
