THUNDER BAY — Every holiday the Pace family has purchased tickets in the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation monthly 50/50 draw, and now it has paid off in a big way, not only for them, but the entire community.
“Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, today, yesterday,” said Nick Pace on buying tickets.
“Sometimes there was no reason,” added Natalie Pace. “Just because we knew we were hopefully helping someone else at the hospital.”
The Pace family are the latest winners of the Hospital’s 50/50 draw, taking home a record setting $2.5 million.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, honestly,” Natalie said. “I am standing here with my family and holding the cheque, but it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
The jackpot is the largest since last December, when it topped out at $2.3 million.
Just yesterday, Natalie and her family were walking past the 50/50 ticket pop-up store at the Intercity Shopping Centre saying how nice it would be if they were able to return to collect the prize the next day.
Lo and behold, on Friday they were back to be presented with the cheque. And while the money is a welcomed shock to the family, the Pace family participate every month in order to give back to the hospital.
“It’s nice that the money is matched and it goes to a good cause and we are happy to be a part of it,” Nick said.
“I purchased the tickets just to give back to the hospital, they have been so wonderful to our family,” Natalie added. “It was something I wanted to donate to. I never ever thought in a million years I would actually win the money. I was just trying to be a good person to give to the hospital.”
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation president and CEO Glenn Craig said hearing the Pace family’s story moved him to tears.
“Her genuine desire to give back to the hospital and not about winning, how her family has been impacted and used the facilities here, and a little bit of her intuition and walking by the pop-up store yesterday and just saying to themselves: wouldn’t it be great if we are back her tomorrow winning the money and lo and behold, here they are winning $2.5 million,” he said.
According to Craig, the monthly 50/50 draw has generated more than $15 million being invested into hospital facilities and services.
“When we started this we had no aspirations for that,” he said. “We have invested millions extra into our hospital and we have been able to do things we would never have even dreamed about.”
Money from the December draw will be invested into the hospital’s emergency department and Craig said all the donations have had a tremendous impact.
And that is all thanks to the people who continually support the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation and purchase tickets in the monthly 50/50 draw.
“It’s really heartening to see this is a community that is pulling together to improve our health care and we’ve also changed one family’s life,” Craig said. “The success of the 50/50 has been entirely because of the community of Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario. There are real changes happening because of it.”
