“The Awesome Eight” office pool claims $1 million prize

Drawing Date: 6/26/2015

June 30, 2015 - Kay White’s co-workers thought she was playing a trick on them. She was calling to tell them that their office pool had won $1 million playing Mega Millions.

“No one believed me, of course,” she said.

But it was no joke. A Mega Millions ticket bought by Ms. White on behalf of the pool had matched the first five winning numbers in the June 26 Mega Millions drawing. She bought the ticket at the 7-Eleven at 290 South Main Street in her hometown of Broadway, Va.

The members of “the Awesome Eight,” who each received $125,000 before taxes, are:

Debra Hoskins – Keezletown, VA
Curtis Crawford – Weyers Cave, VA
Lonnie Gale – Timberville, VA
Cuong Huynh – Harrisonburg, VA
Alisa Hartman – Broadway, VA
Timothy Firkin – Mount Sidney, VA
John Cuellar – Harrisonburg, VA
Kay White – Broadway, VA
 
Ms. White said they’ve been playing Mega Millions together for about two-and-a-half years, although the group started out a little smaller. They work together at R. R. Donnelley.

“It was just a group of us talking and we decided to start a pool,” she said. “We originally called ourselves the ‘Lucky Six.’”

The winning numbers for that drawing were 12-23-33-47-50 and the Mega Ball number was 3. Had that ticket matched all six numbers, the group would have won the $64 million jackpot. This was the only ticket nationwide to win the $1 million second prize. No ticket won the jackpot in that drawing.

The store receives a $10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery for selling the winning ticket.