Congratulations to Tricia van Rhijn, April’s Grand Prize winner who won $44,725!

Imagine getting a phone call on a Friday afternoon informing you that you were $44,725 richer. This amazing moment happened for Tricia van Rhijn last week, on April 29^th.

Tricia had been dutifully toiling away in her home office at her job as an associate professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph when she got the call. Foundation staffer Jennifer Duggan asked her to confirm her ticket number and recounts, “Tricia went from disbelief to excitement and then to happy tears. It was lovely to get to share in her excitement, once she realized that it was real.”

As soon as Tricia ended the call she remembered that she had placed her sister on hold. After sharing the happy news with her, she went to find her husband of 32 years, Ed, and tell him. He was only convinced when she showed him an e-mail from the Foundation to all 50/50 Hospital Lottery for Guelph General Hospital players. Cue the joy! They celebrated that evening by telling their two grown sons and enjoying some take-out food.

Like many during the pandemic, Ed has been out of work for about two years. As Tricia relates, “We are fortunate that my job is so stable but we had designed our lives around two incomes coming in. It is challenging when one earner is out of work for so long.” Ed had been working in product standards and compliance in the manufacturing sector.

“We are going to be very boring and shore up our financial obligations while Ed completes a retraining program to become a home inspector. No wild trips or fancy purchases. We are just thrilled this will give us some financial wiggle room during this period,” shared Tricia.

In a quirk of timing, they had just went to a house showing the day before as they were considering selling their larger home and downsizing their mortgage. This win allows them to wait for the very hot housing market to settle a bit. They won’t need to rush and can watch and wait for the perfect next home.

Tricia decided to calculate how many times she purchased tickets and discovered she had played 22 times for a total ticket purchase of $440. She quipped, “Pretty good return on investment!”

Indeed, Tricia, indeed! Congratulations to you and Ed.

Tickets Are On-Sale Now For May’s 50/50 Hospital Lottery!
PLUS we’re giving away three early bird prizes!

We also have three $1,000 early bird prizes to award this month, on Wednesday, May 4^th, Wednesday, May 11^th and Wednesday, May 18^th.

The grand prize will be drawn on Tuesday, May 31^st. Make sure to purchase your tickets today at 10:59 a.m. to be included in all the early bird and grand prize draws.

Purchase your tickets today at http://ggh5050.ca for your chance to win!