And The Winner Is … Sunshine Mine Driller Wins Nic’s House Raffle
After 26 years at Sunshine Mine, driller Ken Tucker hit pay dirt Tuesday - after his shift was over.
Tucker, 51, won a $200,000 Hayden Lake home in the North Idaho College Foundation’s Really Big Raffle.
The Coeur d’Alene man responded with a few words of disbelief when he got the call from Rayelle Anderson, the foundation’s associate director.
He bought ticket No. 806 back in March because he liked donating to the college. He’d never been to the house.
“I don’t even have a clue where it is,” he said.
This is the third year of the raffle, which raises money for scholarships and other campus needs.
The second-place prize went to Doug Melven, the raffle’s first Spokane winner. He can choose a $20,000 car, boat or other dream vehicle.
Marvin Farmer of Post Falls won a $3,000 travel package. Erick and Kelly Sheffield of Coeur d’Alene won a $2,000 shopping spree.
None of the winners were present when their names were picked in an evening ceremony at NIC.
The raffle is an annual cliffhanger for foundation members. The $100 tickets go on sale in January, she said, but “people always wait until the last minute. Last Friday, when we sold out, it was such a relief.”
Eleven hundred of the 4,000 tickets sold in the last week.
A house-building project has been the centerpiece of NIC’s carpentry program for 17 years. The foundation got involved six years ago, buying the materials and then selling the house. Proceeds help pay for educational “extras” on campus.
The idea of a raffle came from a fund-raiser sponsored by a hospital foundation in Indiana.
The project has raised awareness of the college, said Anderson. It’s also raised big money.
“We made $200,000 the first year,” said Walt Carlson, chairman of the Applied Technology Program.
That figure dropped last year, and will be $50,000 less this year because land and materials costs have risen, Carlson said, and because the construction is first-rate.
Carlson, a long-time carpentry instructor, has been involved in the house project since the beginning.
It behooves the teacher to make sure a good house is built. If something goes wrong, the students are long gone and the instructor gets to fix the problem.
The young, single fellow who won the first house lived in it for a year and a half before selling it, Carlson said. Last year’s winning family moved in, and apparently intends to stay.
Tucker couldn’t say Tuesday night if he was going to live in the house or sell it. “I’ve thought about it,” he said, still stunned that he had won. “But gambling’s gambling.”
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