One Red Deerian has a new house he can call home.
Kent Gasco was the big winner of the Kinsmen Dream Home Lottery, after his name was drawn for the $730,000 residence.
The two-storey house, located at 3 Eaton Cres., has three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The culinary kitchen has custom cabinetry, there’s a gas fireplace in the living room and the spa-like ensuite has a skylight shower.
Another big winner was Red Deer’s Phil Graham, who won $128,000 in the 50-50 draw.
“You give $128,000 to somebody out of the blue with one phone call, and then you phone somebody else and give them a house worth $730,000. It’s a pretty awesome feeling,” said Scott Bourke, the 2019 Kinsmen Dream Home Lottery co-chair.
“A lot of work is done by a lot of people, and it’s nice to be able to come to that end where you … get to potentially change someone’s life.”
The money raised can go to a variety of causes.
“We take all the money, once we figure out how much we have, that we give out. We have sponsorship requests, we have a lot of companies (and) groups come to us and put in a request for funds through our webpage.
“Then we sit down with them and say, ‘OK this is how much money we have,” he said.
Money raised from previous lotteries has gone to a number of organizations, including the Red Deer Food Bank, Red Deer Pond Hockey and the Aspen Heights Micro Society, said Bourke.
“It’s just as fun giving away the money as it is making the money.”
The Dream Home Lottery sold about 70 per cent of its tickets, and the 50-50 draw sold about 90 per cent. Ticket prices for the dream home were lower this year, said Bourke.
“It opened the door for a lot more people, which is nice,” he said.
“We didn’t actually break even until the 30th (of December), so we only had one day to make the money. That made it a little bit of a hair-pulling experience for the first little bit.
“The 29th, 30th and 31st are our biggest days, by far. We probably make a third of our ticket sales in those last three days.”
Bourke said he’s hoping the lottery was able to raise about $200,000.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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