Cheney woman follows signs to her second lottery winnings

You could call Dawna McCallum a little superstitious, and it’s paying off for the Cheney woman.

McCallum won $52,000 in the Idaho Lottery in 2012, and last week she won $100,000 in an Idaho Lottery scratch game called Big Timber.

The woodsy name resonated with her. McCallum was on her way to a social event, “Working Women’s Wednesday,” hosted by Spokane radio station KZZU-FM at the Timber Gastro Pub in Post Falls. Listening to the station in her car, she heard the song “Timber” by Pitbull with Ke$ha.

The coincidence prompted McCallum to stop and buy a lottery ticket at the Seltice Way Stop-n-Go in Post Falls.

“I went in thinking I was going to get a Powerball ticket, but then I saw they had a Scratch Game called Big Timber,” she said in a lottery news release. “It was like everything was lining up for me. First the name of the place I was going, then the song and then the ticket. I had to buy it.”

McCallum claimed the game’s top prize of $100,000. “It was like the last time. It was meant to be,” she said.

Four years ago, McCallum was the third-ever winner on the Idaho Lottery’s Weekly Grand game, which awards winners $1,000 a week for one year, with all withholding taxes paid by the lottery. She had made a New Year’s resolution to win the lottery and pay down medical debt, and three weeks later she did just that.

McCallum said she plans to pay off her debt and invest the rest of her winnings.