For half a year, a grouping of co-workers from the Walmart store in Ontario, Oregon pooled their resources to save up money to play the Idaho Lottery’s annual Idaho one-million dollar Raffle. The group of five pals who’ve worked together for no less than five years, started saving 10 greenbacks a paycheck in late June 2011. Mega lottery

Once the Idaho one-million dollar Raffle began, the group’s leader, Aaron O’Neil, started buying a couple of tickets every day the Raffle was offered for sale. The persistence paid off on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 when the group claimed the Raffle’s top prize of $1,000,000 at Lottery HQ in Boise. Powerball lottery

“We all work the night shift together, so I’d stop on my way home each morning and buy two tickets,” said O’Neil, who lives in Weiser and bought the winning ticket at the Maverik Country Store in his hometown.

Monica Draper, from Payette, was on holiday the night of the winning numbers statement. She watched the Idaho Lottery’s live statement from the Idaho Steelheads Las vegas Wranglers hockey game, wrote the numbers down, and then checked all of their tickets.

“Aaron had made copies of all our tickets, so I opened them up and turned right to the page that had the winner,” exclaimed Draper. “Thank goodness for kitchen counters to hold me up!”

Word among the group spread quickly. Eddie Ynigez of Nyssa, Oregon, had gone into work early on the night of the draw and became the last to grasp the group’s good fortune. “They called my name over the loudspeaker and told me to come to the manager’s office,” explained Ynigez. “I went in thinking I was intended to be fired. Instead, they just said congratulations!”

Draper and Pamela Linville of Ontario, Oregon, both concluded the weekend was actually long while the group waited to make a claim their prize at Lottery offices on Tuesday. Linville has been holding down 2 roles and now asserts, with the winnings, she’ll be able to leave the second one.

“It’s not enough to retire on, but it will make everyone more comfortable,” claimed Linville. “I’ve been working two roles for 10 years, and now I won’t have to.”

Draper plans to invest almost all of her winnings, pay off 1 or 2 bills, and buy herself a new car. She’s been driving the same auto for the previous seventeen years. She also plans to put the remainder of her winnings toward her retirement plan.

O’Neil plans to repay bills and do some remodeling to his residence. Ynigez is also clearing bills, then making a gift to a local charitable organization that helped his grand-daughter.

The fifth member of the group was Aaron Anderson, of Ontario, Oregon, who plans to pay down bills with his loot. No one in the group is planning to leave their job at Walmart.

For their part in selling the ticket, Maverik receives a $20,000 bonus from the Idaho Lotto. Chris Jensen, an Area Supervisor for Maverik, was on hand during Tuesaday morning’s statement at Lotto Offices in Boise to hear the good news on the winning ticket.

As well as the $1,000,000 prize, there were four $25,000 winning tickets. Three of these prizes have been claimed. The 1st was claimed by Brenda Foulger of Huntsville, Utah, who acquired her ticket at La Tienda in Franklin, along the Idaho-Utah border. The 2nd was claimed by David Kennison of Boise, from a ticket bought at KJ’s on Fairview. The 3rd was claimed by L. Dawson from Wild Willies in Emmett. The final $25,000 winning ticket was bought at Jacksons on Cole in Boise by Cynthia Christian.