By Jeremy Coumbes and Marcy Patterson
Two people will split the $100,000 prize after their ticket was pulled in the 2023 Routt Our Saviour Dreams Drawing on Sunday, Sept. 3.
Dominick and Zander York of Jacksonville were the big winners as the tickets were pulled by Our Saviour kindergartners that Sunday. Dominick, 15, a sophomore, and Zander, 14, a freshman at Routt High School, were excited about their winnings. They both explained they knew they had a ticket, purchased with their name on it as a gift from their mom, Michelle York.
Dominick was eating dinner at Mulligan’s when a friend called him to tell him he had won. He said, “Ha ha, funny joke” and hung up on his friend. His mom called him shortly thereafter to tell him to get back to the campus. In his excitement, he dropped $40 at the table to pay for his $10 meal. Zander was there during the drawing but didn’t hear his name called. His mom also called and told him to get to the stage.
The brothers, both members of the Routt High School football team, were excited. They had been interested in investing money for a while but didn’t have the money available to practice. They are looking forward to meeting with an investor soon to talk about watching their new windfall grow.
In the meantime, they each can spend a little, but neither has come up with an idea. Zander might want a dirt bike. They both want to give a gift to their mom, but so far she has refused to pick something they can provide to her.
In spite of the money, they both were more excited about heading out to their Friday night game against Triopia than they were about posing for photos. (Routt beat Triopia).
Dreams Drawing Chair Monica Eoff says a lot of hard work went into this year’s record-setting event, where tickets were sold out nearly 30 days sooner than previous years. “We definitely have a Dreams playbook. But for an event like this to happen year after year, it just takes the whole community coming together to make it happen. It really takes a village, and this is a perfect example of how you get it done.”
Eoff says all of the proceeds go right back to the students of both schools. “Once all the gifts and prizes are paid out, all the proceeds are split 50-50 between Routt and Our Saviour, and then it will go to whatever the greatest need is or the greatest project.”
Eoff says one of the great things about Dreams Drawing from the organizational standpoint is that the overhead of holding the drawing is already taken care of by the time the names are pulled.
“We are grateful for our community support, we have sponsors who have really been supporting us for almost 30 years if not every year. So, we are truly blessed that the community really rallies behind us and comes together to make this happen.”
