Gary and Viola Green of Red Deer were joined by their family on Tuesday to celebrate receiving the keys to their new home. The couple are this year's winners of the Red Deer Hospital Lottery Grand Prize Dream Home built by Sorento Custom Homes.

By Sheldon Spackman

Good Fortune

Red Deer couple wins Hospital Lottery Grand Prize Dream Home

Jul 23, 2019 | 3:12 PM

Keys were handed out on Tuesday to this year’s Grand Prize winners of the 2019 Red Deer Hospital Lottery.

Gary and Viola Green of Red Deer were winners of the $880,724 Sorento Custom Dream Home located at 68 Larratt Close in the Laredo neighbourhood.

Viola Green says they always support the Red Deer Hospital Lottery, buying tickets every year since the 1970’s.

Viola says it was Gary that told her they won the Dream Home after she arrived home from a funeral.

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“He said right away, ‘What would you say if I won the Dream Home?’” recalls Viola. “I thought yeah right. Then he said, ‘What would you say if we moved to B.C.?’, yeah right. But he says, ‘Yes I did.’”

Although a date hasn’t been determined yet, Gary says they do plan to move into the new home.

“It’s a wonderful home, it’s beautiful, I couldn’t ask for more” says Gary. “I don’t know that it’s really sunk-in yet but it’s a big upgrade!”

Gary says knowing ticket sale proceeds go to a great cause, makes winning feel that much better.

“We’re thankful for all the things the hospital does for people,” says Gary. “Thank you to everyone involved for making it happen.”

Manon Therriault, CEO for Red Deer Regional Health Foundation (RDRHF) says they were cautious heading into this year’s lottery, knowing full well what the state of the economy was.

“But you could tell that the results of where we’re at means that the community truly does care for health care here in our community,” says Therriault. “It’s great because we were able to lower our ticket prices a little bit which we felt made a bit of a difference. But you could just tell it’s the community that wants to band together and rally together and make sure that health care is up to par for central Alberta.”

RDRHF officials say 2019 proceeds will be used to purchase Pyxis Medstations for use in emergency, the intensive care unit, operating room, recovery room, unit 22 (cardiology) & other critical care areas at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.

Pyxis Medstations are automated medication dispensing units with numerous electronic features to ensure safety, accuracy and efficiency.

Therriault admits they were happy with the results of this year’s ticket sales.

“Our Mega Bucks 50/50 was sold out five days in advance to the end, so that was a really great surprise,” she exclaims. “Then we sold out 82 per cent for the lottery. That’s huge for us.”

Other top-three winners from this year’s lottery include Gary Pelletier of Calgary who won a 2019 Ram 1500 Tradesman Quad Cab 4X4 and Sandy Stonehouse of Red Deer who won a 2019 Ford Mustang 14 Coupe Premium.

The winner of the Mega Bucks 50/50 draw was Doris Cordel of Halkirk who took home $250,000.

Over $1.1 million in prizes were up for grabs this year, thanks to the generous support of local sponsors.

“We can’t say enough about our relationship with our sponsors and with the builders,” adds Therriault. “They just do such a great job and they’re so committed and the communication back and forth to ensure that this relationship works for everyone is just amazing. I mean if you just come into this house and see the quality of work done here, I feel makes a big difference in our ticket sales as well because people want to win this home, it’s a home that you want to live in.”