Joel Stretz from Calgary was the lucky $10,000 winner of the Lloydminster Kiwanis Club’s 50/50 draw on Friday. Stretz bought the ticket when working in Lloyd. Club secretary Vera Gallant drove to Calgary to present him with his prize. Supplied Photo
The lucky $10,000 winner of this year’s Lloydminster Kiwanis Club 50/50 draw is also fortunate to have bought the ticket from Vera Gallant.
The club secretary sold the winning ticket to Calgary resident Joel Stretz while he was working in the Lloyd area and she hand-delivered the cheque over the Thanksgiving weekend.
That took care of the proverbial cheque-in-the-mail option.
“I was heading out that way anyway, so it worked out perfect,” said Gallant on Tuesday.
“When he bought the ticket, I jokingly said, ‘if you win I will deliver it to you.’”
Gallant says she phoned Stretz on Friday at noon from UCG Consulting where the draw was made and left Stretz a message.
“So he called me back about an hour later and he said he could not believe that voicemail,” said Gallant with a laugh.
“He said ‘I’m going to leave that one on for a long time. I’m not erasing that one.’”
Gallant notes she presented him with the cheque in a casino where she learned he was married and his wife just had a baby.
She says the young couple plans to put the prize money toward house renovations.
Kiwanis sold all 1,000 draw tickets to net $10,000 as their split of the jackpot.
“We’re in desperate need of money. We have our Santa project coming up. As you know with the price of everything, our $6,000 budget probably won’t even cover it,” said Gallant.
“Plus, we’re major sponsors of the Kiwanis Music Festival so the $10,000 will probably cover those two projects of ours.”
Gallant canvasses a lot of businesses and says local businesses in the community are “totally fabulous because pretty much all of them support us.”
She added she’s not only out selling 50/50s, but she’s out there also “bumming money” for the Festival of Lights which is coming up here shortly.
“Poor businesses are going to start locking the doors when they see me coming,” joked Gallant.
