Christmas comes early for lottery winner
By DENNIS PHILLIPS Special to the OBSERVERFor Falconer resident Sandy Olson, Christmas came early this year in the form of an oversized prize check worth $1 million.
On Tuesday, Olson was announced as a million dollar winner in the New York State Lottery's Super 9s instant game. Olson - along with friends and family, state lottery officials and regional news media - gathered at the U.S. News on East Second Street where she had purchased the ticket on Nov. 5 for the million dollar announcement. Olson compared the excitement of winning the jackpot to the excitement children feel Dec. 25.
''It's just thrilling,'' she said. ''It's like being an 8-year-old kid waiting for Christmas morning to come around.''
Gretchen Dizer, New York State Lottery draw team member, said Ms. Olson was the first lottery millionaire from Chautauqua County in 2009. She will receive 20 payments of $50,000 annually each year, $33,000 after taxes, on another special day in her life Nov. 15, which happens to be her birthday.
She said she plays the lottery every day as a ''source of entertainment'' and the most she had ever one prior to the jackpot was $100.
''I play a lot of various tickets. It just happened to be one of the ones I picked,'' she said.
Olson, who works in the human resources department at RHI Monofrax in Falconer, said she started screaming when she knew she had a winning ticket.
''When I started to scratch off the prize ... I started seeing letters appear and I thought 'Why are there letters.' Then I realized it said 'Jackpot,'' she said.
Olson, mother of two boys, said she plans to spend the money on their college education, to do repairs around her home and to donate some of the money to local organizations. She also said maybe in the future she will take a vacation and the money will also be saved for retirement.
When asked if there will be any new Christmas gift ideas like a new car, Olson answered no. Saying the holidays won't be any different this year, the money will ''just make it easier.''
Tom Johnson, U.S. News owner, said he was excited the ticket was purchased in his store, even though he won't be receiving any additional money from the New York State Lottery for the winning ticket being purchased at his business.
''It's great to see a local person win,'' he said. ''Especially it being a regular customer.''
Olson said being a winner won't change one of her daily sources of entertainment, as she plans to continue playing the lottery.
''That's not going to change,'' she said.
Olson is the second player statewide to claim one of the four $1,000,000 top prizes available on the ticket. Top-prize winning tickets are disbursed randomly across more than 16,000 licensed lottery retail locations statewide. The odds of winning the top prize are one in 2.5 million.
