Marcia Cooper, of Aberdeen, claims one of the ten $100,000 winning Holiday Raffle prizes and is planning a wedding.
A Harford County woman can thank her fiancé for a big Holiday Raffle prize. He bought about 20 tickets for her over the two-month span of the game and one of them was a $100,000 winner.
Marcia Cooper said she plays very little Lottery, but was excited when her fiancé came to her about a new game, the Holiday Raffle.
“He was telling me how great the odds were and how it’s the best chance to win $1 million,” she shared with Lottery officials when claiming the prize Jan. 7 at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
Marcia’s fiancé purchased tickets from Lottery retailers in their area in hopes of a big win. Their dream came true when the Raffle was held on Jan. 2 and, after checking the website, Marcia’s fiancé saw a match. He texted her the winning raffle ticket and a picture of the matching number on the Lottery website. But Marcia, a federal government employee, was driving home from work and was not able to check her phone. She was in for a huge surprise.
“He was standing outside the house when I got home and wanted me to ride with him to the store,” she said. “I was tired, but I went.”
The Aberdeen resident said when they arrived at the Lottery retailer, he pulled out the raffle tickets and said he needed to check them. Excited he said, “I already know one is $100,000,” he said before he hopped out the car.
“I thought, ‘Did he just say $100,000?’” said a shocked Marcia. “When he got back in the car, he showed me the picture on his phone. I couldn’t believe it.”
Among the raffle tickets checked was also a $100 winner. Marcia’s fiancé already knew the other winning ticket was worth $100,000 and left it home in a safe.
When claiming the prize, the couple said now they can have an intimate wedding ceremony instead of just going to the courthouse. They also shared that some of the winnings will be shared with family and they will square up their finances.
The $100,000 winning ticket was purchased at Riverside Sunoco Plus at 1319 Riverside Parkway in Belcamp.
The Maryland Lottery Holiday Raffle ran Nov. 3 through Jan. 1, with winning numbers drawn on Jan. 2, including for a top prize of $1 million and 10 prizes of $100,000 each. The winning numbers – including 10,000 for prizes of $50 to $500 – were selected from among the 237,206 sequentially numbered tickets sold.
Tickets, numbered 000001 through 237206, were $20 each and were available at Maryland Lottery retailers across the state.
A list of all winning numbers is available on the Holiday Raffle page at mdlottery.com, and the page also has a search tool that can be used to check specific numbers to see if they are winners. Holiday Raffle tickets can also be checked by scanning them with the Maryland Lottery app, or at any Lottery retailer. Winners have 182 days from Jan. 2 to claim their prizes.
