Ohio Lottery: Winning small: It's still a blast for Lotto palsReceptionist Martha Whitaker will get a sleek new Japanese car. Housekeeping director Melony Campbell will finally buy a wide-screen TV.
Small pickings, perhaps, for big-time lottery winners.
But for Whitaker, Campbell and 25 other employees at St. Augustine Health Campus who pooled their money every week, it was still a dream come true when their winning numbers were drawn in the $4 million Super Lotto jackpot Saturday night.
Each will get between $27,500 and $55,000.
A gentle, quiet worker had always told fellow housekeepers, kitchen staff and administrators at the assisted-living facility on Cleveland's West Side that if they kept playing the lottery, someday they would hit it big.
So the workers put $2 each into a weekly pool for more than a year to play the Super Lotto Plus and the Mega Millions lotteries.
They played the same numbers 5, 26, 32, 34, 41, 47 week after week.
And week after week, their co-worker assured them that their winning numbers were in the cards.
The co-worker, who insists on remaining anonymous, got on the phone and started spreading the good news Saturday night.
St. Augustine Nursing Director Brigid Nolan, still suffering from jet lag after a trip to Las Vegas, answered her pager, but was not convinced they had won. And Blair Bradley, lead personal assistant at the facility, thought they had won the big Mega Millions jackpot.
Staffers were ecstatic, even though the pot of gold will yield only $55,000 after taxes for 25 of the winners and about $27,500 for two others who split a share.
The prize may bring a whole new view of the world for Nolan, who said part of her payout will go toward laser eye surgery.
Meanwhile, winners like St. Augustine's Assistant Director Nancy Arndt will put some away and share part with close friends. "I have some good friends who have been kind to me in the past, and I'm going to give them a little something," Arndt said.
Bradley said he will invest his winnings. "I'm going to make the money work for me."
The lucky 27 played the six numbers again Wednesday night in the Super Lotto, hoping that with blessings from their determined co-worker, they would hit the jackpot once more.
