A raffle is replacing Community Living Dufferin's biggest fundraising activity of the year, the ARTirondack 'Chairity' Auction.

The auction raised more than $6,000 for CLD in each of the last two years, with proceeds going to programs for those it supports, including horseback riding, camping, day trips to points of interest in the province and drama groups.

However, given the downturn in the economy, CLD decided this year to forego the auction but still offer three ARTirondack items through a raffle. The men in the woodworking program still built a table, kid's chair and adult chair and CLD members are currently selling raffle tickets in the community in hopes of raising about $5,000.

Nearly all of the tickets for the table have been sold, but 200 of the 500 printed are left on the children's chair and about 300 of 1,000) left for the adult chair.

The draw for the three items will be held on July 28 at CLD.

The table and chairs are all hand-built by CLD's Woodworking Group who meet once a week to trace, cut, sand and assemble the items. The men in the group are immensely proud of the items they build, which are then hand-painted by other volunteers.

This year the children's chair was painted by Karen Bowen and her staff at our Rolling Hills Daycare Centre, while the table and the adult chair were painted by Karen Murphy-Fritz.

To date, tickets have been sold at the Home Show, the Farmers Market, Theatre Orangeville and Orangeville Flowers, which has also had the chairs on display, as have Dragonfly Arts.