(L-R): Cory Kaun and Natalie Larkam with Larkaun Homes, Kent and Tammy Gasco, dream home winners, and Scott Bourke, Red Deer Kinsmen lottery co-chair. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

winner winner

WATCH: Kinsmen Dream Home Lottery changes the lives of two families

Jan 5, 2020 | 1:05 PM

The Red Deer Kinsmen and Kinettes made several people very happy campers on Saturday night as they wrapped up the 2019 Dream Home Lottery.

Several smaller cash prizes were drawn, as well a golf package and groceries for a year, with the two bigger rewards sure to be life-changing.

Festivities began with the 50/50 draw, which gave Red Deer resident Phil Graham and his family a cool $128,150.

“My daughter just had a baby and my son is a Calgary firefighter,” says Graham, a local business owner. “We’d put tickets in their Christmas stockings as gifts, so we’re going to split the money between them and us. Hopefully for my daughter, it will help them get into a house.”

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Graham was with his wife at the Collicutt Centre for an evening swim when he got the call that his ticket had been drawn.

Organizers weren’t quite as lucky with the winner of the dream home, at first. The winner, Kent Gasco of Red Deer, did call back shortly thereafter and made his way over with wife Tammy to see the new digs.

“We’re pretty excited. It’s something we’ve always supported,” said Gasco. “I played minor hockey in Red Deer and the Kinsmen put on tournaments when I was kid, so I’ve always just supported it, my parents have and so have Tammy’s.

“We moved in Tammy’s parents and got both our kids back, so we’ve got six adults in quite a small home. This’ll come in handy.”

The Gascos support all the local dream home lotteries, they noted, and also won a Cadillac in last year’s lottery put on by the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre.

Scott Bourke, co-chair of this year’s Kinsmen lottery, says lowering ticket prices helped them sell out 70 per cent of the home draw and 90 per cent for the 50/50.

“Once we figure out how much we have, we have sponsorship requests (to get to). Last year, money went to things like Aspire, the Red Deer Food Bank, Red Deer Pond Hockey, Aspen Microsociety, a lot of things that deal with kids,” he said. “It’s just as fun giving away the money as it is making the money.”

More about the Red Deer Kinsmen and Kinettes is at RedDeerKinsmen.com and RedDeerKinettes.ca.