CLIVE, Iowa — A Boone woman said she didn’t believe her luck after she scratched off a $100,000 lottery prize.
“I ended up FaceTiming my sister and going, ‘Can you tell me? Is this true? Because I don’t believe it,’” Doreen Sawyer said on Friday as she claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. “She looks at it and says, ‘Yes, that is very true!’”
Sawyer won the first top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Wild Cherry” scratch game, a $10 scratch game that debuted this month. It features eight top prizes of $100,000 and overall odds of 1 in 2.83. She bought her winning ticket at L & M Gas & Grocery, 320 W. Mamie Eisenhower Ave. in Boone, where she stopped to buy her father some tickets.
“I have a 90-year-old father who loves lottery tickets, and I buy some for myself,” she said.
After her big win, she took the ticket over to show her father.
“He dropped his jaw all the way to the floor and said, ‘All I ever win is $20 to $40!’” Sawyer said with a laugh.
Sawyer said she plans to invest her winnings.
From now until 9:59 a.m. on July 31, players can enter nonwinning Wild Cherry tickets into the Summer of Music promotion for a chance to win VIP ticket prize packages to the summer’s hottest concerts. For more information about this promotion, visit ialottery.com.
About the Iowa Lottery: Since the lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $5.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $2.3 billion for state programs. Today, lottery proceeds help our state in multiple ways. They support Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. They help the families of Iowa peace officers, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty. And they provide help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund.
(contributed press release, IALottery)