Skagway is anticipating 791,260 cruise ship passengers this year. These visitors will pour money into the local economy, but it can be difficult for local arts organizations, with events year-round that go frequently unseen by these one-day tourists, to grab a piece of the pie. Skagway siblings Olivia and Greg Klupar are hoping to make it a little easier.
In June, they launched Alaska Community Partners, LLC, and placed 14 kiosks at locations in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. Via these kiosks, tourists can purchase $5 raffle tickets in hopes of winning a $1,000 grand prize in October — and all the proceeds go to local arts organizations.
The idea came to the Klupars while they were working with the Skagway Arts Council, an all-volunteer nonprofit funded mostly through government grants, donors and membership fees.
“We realized that there’s such a potential here with the summer visitors,” said Olivia.
It was a little harder than they expected to tap that potential, however. One obstacle: they had to change state regulations. Unmanned kiosks selling lottery tickets were a bit of a murky area in Alaska’s gaming laws and the Klupars were denied a permit in 2015.
But after talking with the Klupars, Rep. Sam Kito III, D-Juneau, worked with the Department of Revenue to add language to Gaming Regulation 15 AAC 160.671 allowing the sale of raffle tickets to be dispensed from vending machines. The regulation went into effect May 25 and the Klupars’ kiosks began selling tickets on June 10.
An additional difficulty has been the machines themselves.
“We have to physically monitor and maintain the each of the machines” across Southeast, Olivia said. “Making sure they still function properly every day is a little bit more challenging than we originally anticipated.” Her brother and business partner, Greg, who has a degree in computer science and worked at Microsoft, is the company’s IT point man.
“It’s been a really eventful journey so far,” Olivia said on the two years it took to get the company to its launch date, but she’s optimistic about the organization’s future and the funds it can channel into the arts. “We’re selling raffle tickets every single day. … I think this is the start of a very successful program that will benefit local communities not just this year but for many years to come.”
Right now, they are only working with the Skagway Arts Council and the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council, but the Ketchikan Arts Council and the Juneau Raptor Center have already expressed interest.
“Our hope is that we will be able to either run a shorter raffle for them later in the season or bring them on next year as we continue to offer this to new communities,” Olivia said.
To help lure tourists to buy raffle tickets, they also offer specialized coupons for the local businesses in which they are located. For instance, one Skagway store offers $5 off a $40 purchase with a raffle ticket, and Tracy’s King Crab Shack in Juneau offers discounts on shipping.
“The customer gets to benefit because not only can they win money, but they can give to the local community; the local retailer benefits because it drives traffic to those stores where we place the kiosk machines and they get to be a proud supporter of the nonprofit we work with in their town; and the nonprofit benefits,” said Olivia. “We see it as a win-win-win.”
The location of the kiosks in Juneau are Tracy’s King Crab Shack, Celebrity Jewelers and the Juneau Arts & Culture Center.
In Skagway, kiosks can be found at Skagway Mining Co., Gold Rush Gifts, Lynch & Kennedy, Historic Skagway Inn and the Klondike Gold Dredge.
Ketchikan has the most locations, with Christmas in Alaska, Great Alaskan Souvenir & Gifts, Ketchikan Mining Co., Fish Pirate’s Gifts, Ketchikan Souvenir & Candy Co. and the Ketchikan Outlet Store.
• Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer and design wizard Randi Spray at randi.spray@capweek.com.
