PORT WENTWORTH, GA - April 5, 2019 - Tickets for the Savannah area’s annual St. Jude Dream Home® Giveaway go on sale Monday, April 8. This year, the home is being built by Village Park Homes in Port Wentworth’s Rice Hope Plantation community.

The giveaway began 28 years ago and is one of the largest single-event fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To date, almost 500 homes have been given away and the program has raised more than $400 million to save the lives of children with cancer and other deadly diseases at St. Jude.

Each year, more than 40 homes are built and raffled off across the United States, with all proceeds benefitting St. Jude. In each community where a raffle is held, St. Jude partners with a builder – like Village Park Homes – and enlists the help of four sponsors, Brizo, Shaw Floors, Trane and Bosch. The companies supply fixtures, appliances, flooring, the HVAC unit and more for the St. Jude Dream Home®.

The tickets, which cost $100 each, will be available for purchase Monday during a WSAV live sell-a-thon, or by calling 1-800-383-9844 or visiting dreamhome.org. Only 6,750 tickets will be sold, and the prize drawing will be conducted on Wednesday, June 26 during a live broadcast on WSAV-TV. Tickets will also be sold at several other awareness-raising events, open houses and additional sell-a-thons in the weeks to come. The other WSAV sell-a-thons are set for April 12, May 3, and June 14.

Potential homeowners are encouraged to come and visit the dream home – a three-story, 3,828-square-foot beauty valued at nearly $4,000 – during weekend open houses slated to

begin May 11, 2019. Tours will be offered from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturdays and from noon- 5 p.m. Sundays.

Those who tour the home can enter to win a separate $10,000 prize from Timeless Interiors, which is staging the house. During the open houses, St. Jude will also raffle off several smaller prize packages and goodies, including a golf and spa package, a dining experience package, and an “adventure package,” that will allow the winner to enjoy events, places and items that are “uniquely Savannah.” In addition, everyone who purchases St. Jude Dream Home raffle tickets by April 12 will also be entered to win a $2,500 Visa gift card.

“The 2019 St. Jude Dream Home® is coming along beautifully, and we’re so thrilled that Port Wentworth is at the center of this year’s initiative. The positive energy generated by St. Jude, Village Park Homes and our excited community is just infectious,” Port Wentworth Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Trisha Growe said. “We encourage anyone who is curious to stop by and visit the gorgeous house during one of the many open houses we’ll be having in May and June. Once you lay eyes on it, you won’t leave without buying a ticket!”

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. St. Jude has the world's best survival rates for the most aggressive childhood cancers, and treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. For more information on St. Jude Children’s Hospital, please visit www.stjude.org/give/dream-home. For more information on Village Park Homes, please visit www.villageparkhomes.com. For more information about the Port Wentworth Chamber of Commerce, please visit www.visitportwentworth.com or call 912-965-1999.