A labor of love might be an understatement this Valentine's for one Sioux Falls doctor. And she's also providing a new meaning to giving out the farm.
Dr. Annette Bosworth has traveled round the state trying to find approaches to distribute cost-effective medicine to people who don't have access. While the endeavor has good intentions, raising awareness and cash has been difficult. This is exactly why the Plankinton native decided to get a little creative and raffle off her family's farmland.
South Dakota"The first week, everybody thought it was a scam," Bosworth said. "The second week, they type of said, 'No, I think this really is real.' So that's when it started to get and over the last five days, I haven't been able to keep up with what the number is."
Bosworth is selling $1,000 tickets to the first 500 people who sign up. The winning ticket can get nearly 160 acres to farm and hunt in Aurora County, all for the purpose of helping those in need.
"I'm using South Dakota land for a completely different purpose," Bosworth said. "But it is kind of rewarding the talent of thinking outside the box."
Bosworth says rural communities constitute a majority of the state of South dakota. And she believes a combination of technology and much more personal service can meet the requirements of those communities.
"The process of taking in a patient or understanding who they really are becomes very much the patient's responsibility," Bosworth said. "And they take ownership inside their care a lot quicker."
The Aurora County land has been in Bosworth's family for generations. While she admits not many are sold on the idea, she believes it's her means of changing the health care landscape being a private physician.
"It might be a crazy to say this concept of raffling your land, how will you possibly do that?" Bosworth said. "But it's also a little crazy to believe you can be one person and alter how the industry works."
Bosworth says only half of the 500 raffle tickets are already sold so far. Enter won't happen until all of them are gone. But with the current stream of customers, she hopes that will happen in a few weeks.