After 20 years of playing the LOTTARIO draw, a group of eight former coworkers have finally won big with a prize of nearly one million dollars.
The group of coworkers from the GTA previously worked in the education sector, but are now retired. Since then, they have been playing the lottery every week to potentially score big.
Among the winners was Newmarket resident Bernadette Kenny.
“I buy the tickets and check them every Sunday morning,” Kenny said at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto according to a news release on Friday.
Now she has finally reaped the rewards in this dedicated routine because on the morning of March 4, she realized they won $956,081.10 in the LOTTARIO draw.
In addition, they also won four dollars on another one of their LOTTARIO selections and two dollars on their ENCORE selection.
Following the win, Bernadette called one of her coworkers in the group, Heather Lundberg, to share the surprise.
“When Bernadette called me and told me to write down a number, I thought it was a phone number,” Lundberg said. “She then told me that was the amount of money we won – I was so surprised!”
When fellow member Margaret Hennelly was called, she was just getting home from a vacation.
“I got a call from Bernadette after getting home from vacation and she told me to plan another one because we won big,” she said.
To celebrate, the group has made various plans to go on vacations or share the prize with their families.
Lundberg plans to use the money to fix the fence in her backyard, meanwhile Kenny is planning a Christmas vacation with her family.
“I think it means a lot that we won this prize together because we’ve known each other for 30 years,” Kenny expressed.
The other winners include Barbara Robinson-Vincent of Newmarket, Betty-Anne Gottfried of Alliston, Christiane Durocher of Ancaster, Patricia Daley of Aurora, and Suzanne Poirier of Wasaga Beach.
The winning ticket was purchased at Shoppers Drug Mart on Yonge Street in East Gwillimbury.
