FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

No – you need not be present to win. Winner will be contacted on the day of the raffle.

For the live drawing, we will reprint tickets purchased both online and offline, and on those tickets will be the name and contact information of the participants. The announcement will also be made online. We do not use number system to avoid confusion, given the multiple ways of acquiring the raffle tickets.

No – the winner must either pick up the car in Gallup or arrange shipping.

No – the winner will literally receive the raffled car for the ticket price: $25. V8's for Vocations pays the federal gift tax. If the winner is out of the country, that individual may be responsible for any applicable import taxes or fees.

No – you can be anywhere to participate. However, as stated above, in the event that you are the winner, you are responsible for the fees that entail importing the car into your country.

The car will be ready for pickup or delivery on the day of the raffle.

The V8s program is a community effort of active and retired professional mechanics and car enthusiasts who have generously agreed to donate their time and efforts toward the restoration.

Fr. Matthew Keller, at the time the vocations director for the Diocese, had the idea to merge his love of classic cars with the duties of overseeing the education of the Gallup seminarians. He calls the new program “V8s for Vocations”.

“The idea was, I’ve always liked cars. I learned how to work on them in high school – I learned how to do autobody for a year,” said Fr. Keller. “I restored my own car after high school and helped my brother-in-law paint several vehicles. So it’s always been an interest of mine, but something I thought I had to give up as a priest.”

Then one day, some parishioners provided Fr. Keller with inspiration.

“Some friends said, ‘you should get a car and get the seminarians to help you fix it up.’ I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s a great idea, but let’s use it for a fundraiser.’ And so right away I talked about it with some other friends, and a high school friend of mine said ‘You know what, I’ve got a car for you, I saw it in an ad in Bloomfield at a reasonable price.’”

The car advertised in Bloomfield turned out to be a 1972 Chevelle Super Sport. A donor offered to buy the car, to kickstart the first restoration. While the Chevy needed a lot of work, Fr. Keller enlisted the help of volunteers and seminarians to restore the Chevelle, which was raffled off in a very successful program.

Aside from the cost of restoring the vehicle, funds raised by raffle support the education of priests who serve the poorest Diocese in America.

V8s for Vocations has been recognized nationally. Hagerty has filmed an interview with Rev. Matthew Keller. Numerous articles and news stories have been published by the Knights of Columbus, Catholic News Agency. Albuquerque Journal, Crux, KRQE News, have all published articles on V8s for Vocations. Some are available for your review on this website.