The campus Methodist student ministry is offering more than a warm space for prayer, conversation, food and comfort for the upcoming spring semester. 

TCU Wesley, located on West Lowden Street, will raffle off two of its parking spots to raise money in order to help fund their programming budget.

“We are surrounded on all sides by commuter lots so we thought it would be a great opportunity to raise some money for a good cause and meet a need,” said Rev. Megan Davidson, director of the Wesley Foundation and Methodist campus minister.

Rev. Davidson said the two winners of the first raffle held by the foundation will be emailed Nov 15.

DeAnn Jones, coordinator of parking and transportation services, said there are 18 commuter lots on the campus parking map. Three of the 18 are in close proximity to the TCU Wesley building and to the Smith Entrepreneurs Hall.

The staff from the Wesley Foundation put fliers on all the cars in nearby commuter lots in order to market to a population that spends precious minutes before class searching up and down rows to find an empty parking spot.

The fliers said the foundation will sell the tickets in front of the Founders’ Statue until Nov. 15. The raffle is open to students, faculty and staff hoping to win one of two reserved parking spots next semester in the TCU Wesley lot.

They are selling raffle tickets at a rate of one for $5 or three for $10.

“You would have four months of hassle-free parking for $10 if you won the raffle,” Davidson said.

To monitor the spots, since they will not patrolled by TCU Police, the winning cars will have a hang tag and the Wesley staff will know which car to look for.

Rev. Davidson said she hopes this will continue every year.

Davidson also said the idea for the raffle came originally came from Bonnie Melhart, associate provost for research and dean of graduate studies and university programs, who serves on the board for the TCU Wesley Foundation.

In addition, Rev. Davidson said she found a piece of news that held her attention.

“I saw an article in the Skiff recently on Oct. 24 that was talking about the problems that commuters and faculty and staff outnumber the allotted spaces,” she said.

The funds raised from the raffle will go toward TCU Wesley’s $17,000 programming budget, which supports the foundation’s retreats, meals, mission work, Bible study materials and resources, guest speakers and leadership development. Anything that develops the TCU Wesley ministry, Davidson said.

She said she does not expect current TCU Wesley students to get upset about having two less spots in the 13-space parking lot behind the building, especially considering the funds are being raised for the students.

It will primarily affect commuting upperclassmen who use the lot but are never guaranteed a space, she said.

Rev. Davidsonn said she does not know how much success raffle will have, especially since TCU Wesley has not done fundraising recently in the past.

“I really have no idea what the outcome is going to be,” she said. “Once we get through this first semester of raffles, we might set a specific goal for in the future.”

This spring semester, however, the continuous search for a parking sport will finally end for two lucky students.