ABOYNE – The Fergus Elora Rotary Club held its 49th weekly Catch the Ace draw on Nov. 12 and drew Tena Stortz’s name out of a drum containing 6,760 ballots.
As the weekly winner Stortz won $6,760 and chose envelope 39 – one of only four remaining envelopes from the original 52 when the draw began last December.
The Aboyne Hall room was full when the winning ballot was drawn, and Rotary Member Neil Dunsmore called Stortz.
Initially, the call went to voicemail as Stortz was preoccupied and didn’t recognize the number.
“I didn’t answer the phone right away, but once we were on the call, they opened the envelope,” Stortz recalled in an interview at the cheque presentation on Nov. 21.
“I answered and all I could hear was screaming and I was like, what’s going on?” she said.
The card was taken out of its envelope and revealed to be the ace of spades.
“I was still thinking that it was just the weekly draw I’d won. It wasn’t until after the crowd died down a bit that I understood it was actually the ace in the envelope,” Stortz said.
The jackpot for finding the ace of spades was $141,810 – bringing Stortz’s combined total prize to $148,550.
She said she purchased her ticket online as she had each week for roughly 16 weeks.
Asked what she will do with the money, Stortz said she would likely pay off some bills and her mortgage, but she also noted her kids were “revising their Christmas lists.”
Rotary member Bruce McLeish said half of the proceeds from the draw goes to charities within the Centre Wellington community, including Groves Memorial Community Hospital, the Grove Hub and Habitat for Humanity.
For information on next year’s draw or to view videos of draws from this year, visit ferguselorarotaryace.com.
