A phone call just after midnight yesterday awoke Candace Boychuk with good news.
Boychuk was told that her ticket was the winner for the Rotary Dream Home valued at more than $785,000 in the 2009 Calgary Stampede Lotteries.
“I thought it was a joke,” said Boychuk when she heard she had won.
“It still hasn’t sunk in. It doesn’t seem like it’s real,” she said later in the day.
Boychuk and her boyfriend bought the winning ticket last Tuesday as they were leaving the Stampede.
“We walked by the booth and thought we might as well buy one while we’re here,” she said.
Boychuk said they plan on living in the house, but have no idea what it looks like because they didn’t visit the model at the grounds.
The 2009 Rotary Dream Home is a 2,283-square-foot home that is built in the southeast community of Walden.
“We’re really happy and fortunate,” said Boychuk.
Robert Koethler of Drayton Valley won the second largest prize, the Lions Lucky Loot with a grand total of $300,000 cash.
Other prizes included groceries for life and six different vehicle packages, including different boats, motorcycles and cars, totalling more than $1.8 million.
Proceeds from the tickets sales will support charities throughout southern Alberta through the Stampede’s service club partners, Kinsmen Club of Calgary, Calgary North Hill Lions Club, Rotary Club of Calgary South and the Calgary Marching Show Band Association.
