On a late January night in Red Deer, Colleen Degenhardt and her husband Tim were frantically double and triple-checking their numbers.
The long-married Red Deer couple had played the Oilers Foundation online 50/50 on a whim Jan. 30, during the Oilers 5-4 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
When the winning number was announced, Colleen couldn’t believe it was actually theirs.
“It was really exciting for us. My son-in-law called and said ‘check your numbers,’ I told him ‘we will after supper.’ I looked at them and took them over to my husband and said I think you should check this,” she recalled.
“Everybody phoned everybody and said check this out. We have three daughters and one of them is living with us, they were hooting and hollering and checking… I think my husband checked them frontwards and backward, that night and the next.”
The win netted them $556,460.
“It was very exciting to share it with our girls,” she said.
Colleen, who is semi-retired said they have been Oilers fans forever, even if her husband is the bigger fan. She said they don’t usually play the 50/50 but tried during the World Juniors and decided to give it another shot that Saturday night.
As for the money, they’re hoping to buy a new boat, but also want to put aside money for Tim’s retirement and give some to their three daughters.
“We have been looking for a boat for the last two or three years, maybe we’ll buy one now, we haven’t found what we wanted,” she said.
“That’s about it, help our girls out.”
Send your news tips
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter