A Chatham couple and annual supporters of the fundraiser have claimed the winning ticket in a local 50/50 draw to support health care.
Mike Veres, along with his wife Wendy Wright, won $126,840 by purchasing a ticket for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation’s Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser.
“I buy these 50/50 tickets every year, because I know that they are for a good cause. This year, I bought them online the morning of the draw,” Veres said in a news release.
“A few days later, I saw an email come in from the foundation with the winning ticket number, so I checked my tickets, and it turned out that we had the winner.”
“I didn’t believe it,” Wendy Wright said. “I thought that it had to be some sort of mistake.”
The great-grandparents plan to share some of the winnings with their family and use some of the money towards travel and purchasing a new vehicle.
This is the fourth-consecutive year the jackpot has surpassed $100,000. Since 2019, the draw has raised over $1.1 million with half paid out to the winners and the other half used towards medical equipment for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
This year’s fundraiser was dedicated to supporting the purchase of two new pulmonary function tests, with one each for the Chatham and Wallaceburg sites.
“We heard from so many people throughout Chatham-Kent about the critical need for these PFT units at both our Chatham and Wallaceburg sites,” Mary Lou Crowley, president and CEO of the foundation, said in the release.
“Working together, the money that we raised will have a profound impact on local health care for years to come.”
The 50/50 draw was sponsored by the MCH family of companies.
“Robb (Nelson) and his team have been with us since the very beginning of this fundraiser, and together we have raised an astounding amount of money in support of our local hospital site,” Bob Hockney, chair of the foundation board of directors, said in the release.
Tickets for the fundraiser were available both online and in-person at different locations in Chatham-Kent. This year, the foundation sold 7,031 tickets with 75 per cent purchased online.