The winner of the Rogers Center Tesla raffle was Virginia Huerfeld, she picked up her new electric car in October with her son Christan Grieco, presented by Rogers Executive Director Simon Solomon.

The Friends of Rogers is a nonprofit organization that relies on local community support, financial donations and volunteers.

With much of their school programs and events canceled, donations and federal relief help keep the organization afloat in 2020, as it kept the property open during the pandemic and even saw an increase in visitors.

“There was absolutely no way we could shutter our staff, shut our doors, go home and wait for this to be over and come back and think it’s going to be brighter on the other end,” said Rogers Executive Director Simon Solomon.

“So being relevant, to be there for the community, to write knowledge on our natural environment, to allow our community to retain their memories from coming to the Rogers Center as kids and now they’re grandparents coming to Rogers and bringing their grandchildren. So, we just want to be able to be here for the community the entire time, and I really want people to come out to the Rogers Center and just check it out.”

The center operates with only two full-time employees right now and two part-time staff. There are also about four or five temporary positions that are grant-funded interns and staff.