Dave Thomas woke up Friday and went to work, just like any other weekday.
He’ll go to sleep a double millionaire.
Thomas, 34, is the grand prize winner of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Lottery, news that shocked the well-known chef when the phone call came from the charitable organization’s Toronto headquarters.
“It feels amazing. I don’t know what to say,” he said at a hastily called news conference at the North McKellar Street home of his business, Salt and Pepper Catering.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m sure it will be good.”
Thomas said he wasn’t sure what to think upon learning the news. The organization played coy with him at first, before spilling the $2-million beans.
“They said do you have any idea why we’re calling? I said, ‘No, do you need catering?’ They said, ‘No.’ They said they were from Heart and Stroke and I said ‘Do you need a donation?’ They said, ‘No, but it’s about a donation you made. Do you remember buying a ticket?’ That’s when they told me I won,” Thomas said.
But they continued to hold back just exactly what he’d won.
Thomas said they started listing off a bunch of different prizes, from restaurant gift certificates to cars to homes to the grand prize.
Then they asked him to pick which one he’d like.
“So I chose the $2 million.”
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Thomas, who texted his sister and mother with the good news, said he has no plans for the money, other than possibly purchasing a new pig roaster for the business.
Things will settle down, he said, now that he no longer has to convince his staff and friends of his good fortune.
“Everyone didn’t believe it. It’s incredible. You can’t even fathom it. It still doesn’t seem real. This all just happened in one day,” said Thomas, a Markham, Ont. native who had just returned to Thunder Bay from a short getaway in Las Vegas.
This isn’t the first time he’s won playing the Heart and Stroke Lottery, but it’s the first big prize he’s captured. He was one of 250,000 ticket-buyers in the running.
Thomas said he’s been playing it for eight years.
Still faced with a take-out spaghetti dinner to prepare, as well as two other catering jobs, Thomas said he planned to finish them, then start celebrating – though he did pop the cork off a bottle of champagne he had conveniently stored in a nearby fridge.
“It’s going to be a good weekend.”
