Benefiting Idaho public schools and buildings

 

IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         CONTACT: David Workman

Thursday, November 16, 2006                                                                       (208) 334-2600

 

FROM MISHAP TO FORTUNE, CALDWELL WOMAN WINS $50,000

 

Boise – A mishap turned into fortune for Pamela Russell Thursday morning when she claimed a $50,000 winning Gingerbread Dough scratch ticket at Lottery headquarters.

 

Russell, a full-time Social Work major at Boise State and single mother with two teenagers, was involved in an automobile accident last Friday that totaled her 1990 Chevy Cavalier.  Five days later, she stopped off at the Albertson’s Express Fuel Stop in Caldwell to buy some gas for a vehicle she had borrowed when her misfortunes took an unexpected turn for the better.

 

“I even borrowed $20 to fill up the gas tank of the vehicle I borrowed. I spent $15 on gas and the other $5 on the Gingerbread Dough ticket,” confessed a giddy Russell. “I just love those tickets. They smell like gingerbread cookies which are my favorites!” 

 

“She comes in several times a week to play,” explained Rick Bowden, the Albertson’s clerk who sold Russell the winning ticket and joined her at Lottery offices Thursday morning when she claimed her prize. “She’s always asking me to sell her a good one and I guess last night I did. When I told her how much she’d won, she reached across the counter and gave me a big hug!”

 

Unable to sleep and needing a new car, Russell went window shopping for a Chevy Malibu at a few local area car lots between 11 pm and 1 am – even though they were closed. “I just couldn’t sleep. I kept waking up every hour and checking the clock to see if it was time to drive down to Boise,” said the excited winner who took home $33,600 after taxes.

 

Russell, a former long-haul truck driver and trainer of women truck drivers, gave up that career 3 ½ years ago to stay at home with her children. “I knew if I kept driving my kids might never finish high school, so I decided to stay at home and help them,” she said clutching her souvenir check tightly.  “I’m dirt poor with a semester left in school. This is just what I needed!”

 

For their part in selling the winning ticket, Albertson’s will receive a bonus check for $5,000.

 

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