LANSING, April 23, 2002 – The recent Lottery fever that surrounded the April 16 Big Game jackpot resulted in a flood of second-tier $150,000 winners, including "The Huskies" Lottery Club of Midland! The 29-member Lottery club matched the first five numbers drawn in the April 16 Big Game drawing to win a $150,000 prize. The winning numbers for that day’s drawing were: 7, 10, 25, 26, 27 and the Big Money Ball number was 23.
The winning "easy pick" ticket was purchased at Sids Party Store SDM, 810 Ashman St., in Midland.
"The Huskies" Lottery Club is comprised of Midland Public Schools staff members, and operates during the staff members’ spare time. The club has only been in existence for two weeks—and when they purchased the tickets for the April 16 drawing, it was only the fourth time the club had played Michigan Lottery games together!
"The Huskies" Lottery Club members, who are all from the Midland area, are as follows:
Sally Brown of Midland
Cornelia Caldwell of Midland
Cheryl Collins of Midland
Nancy Cosman of Midland
Denise Craft of Midland
Linda Crishon of Midland
Tommy Crishon of Midland
Joan Douglass of Midland
Katherine Duso of Midland
Milford R. Fryar of Sanford
Mary Gronda of Saginaw
Mark Hackbarth of Midland
Kayla Hearns of Midland
Helen Kiefer-Tillinger of Sanford
Victoria Litke of Midland
Janet Leigeb of Midland
Jill McEachin of Midland
Annette Myers of Midland
Bob Ribble of Midland
Brenda Rusch of Midland
Paula Skym of Midland
Nancy Susterka of Midland
Julie Villano of Bay City
Dawn Walker of Midland
Nancy Ware of Midland
Janet Williams of Midland
Elizabeth Wilson of Midland
Betty Windover of Midland
Marcine Wittbrodt of Midland
"Our co-op student employee, who is 18 and part of the club, saw the winning numbers on the televised drawing," Betty Windover, club representative, said. "He called me late that night to tell me he thought we had won, and I immediately took the ticket to the store to verify that it was a $150,000 winner. When I knew for sure, I began making calls to club members—and since we have so many, I was making calls until after 2 a.m.! Everyone is very excited to have won; a lot of members have been so excited they cannot sleep! One of our club members even cried tears of joy when I told her the good news."
The club kept the ticket in a Ziploc bag before turning it in at Lottery headquarters in Lansing, because they were afraid their nervousness would cause sweaty hands and the ticket would be ruined! Windover also added that she found a lucky penny the day the ticket was purchased, so she believed luck was on the club’s side!
"We have had a lot of fun playing The Big Game as a Lottery club," Windover said. "People are happy to have won—some are singing in the halls, others are making plans for their winnings."
Some of those plans include home improvements, taking a cruise, paying off a recently-purchased golf cart, making payments on a Florida vacation, and taking summer trips.
The Big Game is a multistate lottery game in Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Wagers cost $1 each and tickets may be purchased at more than 7,000 Michigan Lottery retailers statewide.
Big Game drawings are conducted every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. The next Big Game drawing is tonight, Tuesday, April 23, with an expected jackpot of $7 million.
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