Rhena wins a brand new car
For the hundreds of people who gathered at Fort Sherman Park around the dinner hour Wednesday, North Idaho College’s Really BIG Raffle drawing was about anticipation – the hope that they’d soon be leaving as winners of a new car, cash or a $200,000 home.
Rhena Cooper, a microbiology instructor at the school, didn’t win the grand prize. Instead, she won a set of wheels to replace her 1991 Camry with a whopping 275,000 miles on it.
Cooper stole the evening show, not only for being the highest-placed prize winner in attendance, but also for the way she accepted her award. The single mother of three, dressed in blue jeans and a white NIC sweatshirt, came running to the stage, jumping and screaming. She gave the president of the college, Michael L. Burke, a huge hug. And then she started crying, unable to fully describe what she was feeling.
“Just lucky, and proud I teach at NIC,” said a sobbing Cooper as she wiped tears from her face. After purchasing at least one $100 ticket in each of the past 10 years, Cooper won $20,000 Wednesday to use toward the purchase of a new automobile.
The real victor of the night, Duane Harvey, wasn’t in attendance. He won a new, custom built, three-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot Coeur d’Alene Place home built by students in the college’s carpentry program. NIC Foundation Executive Director Rayelle Anderson called the Spokane resident at home to tell him the good news.
“You’re kidding,” said Harvey, a World War II veteran who retired after a career in marketing and sales. “I can’t imagine it.”
Like Cooper, Harvey has been buying tickets for quite some time. This year, he and his family bought three. Win or lose, he said, the money goes to a good cause.
A total of 4,000 tickets were sold this year, the 11th time in 11 years that the drawing has sold out. On average, the college foundation nets about $150,000 each year, Anderson said. That money goes toward instructional grants, student scholarships and campus improvements.
“What I hear from ticket buyers is, ‘This is a great raffle and the odds are great. But I buy this ticket because I want to support the college and the students,’ ” Anderson said. About 1 percent to 2 percent of ticket buyers are from outside the region, she said, with 70 percent coming from North Idaho and the rest from the Spokane area.
In addition to the financial perks of the program, students also are trained in the craft of home-building. It takes the students — usually 10 to 18 of them — about 10 months to build the house. NIC students have built a house each year for the past two decades, Anderson said.
Coeur d’Alene resident Fred Stephenson, 62, bought his first ticket this year, even though he’s lived in the city his entire life. Stephenson’s wife, Kay, bought him the ticket for Father’s Day after their neighbor, Ralph Shepard, enticed her.
“Of course, everybody thinks they’re going to win a house here,” Shepard said.
D’Arcy Tatshama drove all the way from the Colville Indian Reservation, on the northern shore of Lake Roosevelt, to try his luck. Tatshama said he spent a bit too much last year, buying three raffle tickets. So this year, he bought just one.
“But I buy a lot of lottery tickets and I never win anything,” he said. “I think it’s the anticipation.”
Aside from Harvey and Cooper, Wednesday’s other big winners were Coeur d’Alene resident Nolan Holbrook, who won a $3,500 travel package, and Gina and Jason Williamson of Post Falls, who won a $2,000 shopping spree. Others won a 36” TV, a DVD/VHS player and $500 in cash.
For Cooper, the thrill of winning became just a bit sweeter after examining her tickets. Cooper bought two tickets this year, and then another after getting her tax returns. It was that third ticket, No. 0743, that earned her a new car.
“Next year,” she said, “I’m going to win the house.”