Two friends from Red Deer who regularly purchase Kinsmen Dream Home tickets together will be sharing the $770,000 grand prize.
Contractor Wes Wiebe and Stan Crowe, who works at Michener Services, bought three tickets for $250 and wound up winning the 2,351-square-foot, two-storey, three-bedroom and three-bathroom house located at 2 Sutherland Cl.
The winning ticket was drawn New Year’s Eve.
Wiebe couldn’t believe their luck when dream home chair Scott Bourke called him that night.
“This is awesome. I’m still shaking,” said Wiebe, 47, who then came out to the Dream Home at about 10:30 p.m. Monday night with his daughter Taylor who was home for the holidays from Victoria where she is studying microbiology.
“I’ve got to send my other daughter a picture. She doesn’t believe us.”
“I didn’t believe them at first either,” said Taylor Wiebe about the initial phone call.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time for him — every year.”
Wiebe has been buying tickets for about 15 years, the last four or five years with Crowe, who was home with the flu.
Wiebe said he buys Dream Home tickets mostly to support the Kinsmen.
“I know the Kinsmen do a lot of good things around Red Deer. I know where the money is going that’s for sure. It’s going to support a lot of good stuff.”
Wiebe said they would probably sell the house and split the profit.
Built by Ammonite Developments, the 2012 Dream Home is the 31st home draw for Red Deer Kinsmen.
The home boasts a kitchen with a stone countertop, master ensuite with a small gas fireplace, basement media room with a flat screen television with 7.1 surround sound, and a secondary media room designed for kids.
A total of 9,386 Dream Home tickets were sold out a possible 14,115, or 66 per cent.
There was a long, steady line up of people buying tickets throughout the afternoon at the house on Monday.
New for the Kinsmen was a 50/50 draw. Ninty-six per cent of tickets were sold to raise $96,250.
Brent Volk, of Red Deer, had the winning ticket worth $48,125.
Money raised through all ticket sales goes to a variety of community groups and services like Red Deer Pond Hockey, Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter, and others.
“Roughly it looks like we’ll make about $170,000. It was a good year for sure,” Bourke said.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com