While a car accident on Sept. 17, at the intersection of Eighth and Grove, which totaled Junior Ashley McEachern’s car, may not be considered one of her luckiest days, Wednesday was another story.
McEachern bought a $2 scratch-off ticket from Santa Fe Market in Baldwin City Wednesday, and an hour later, while at Alpha Chi Omega sorority, unveiled the $10,000 prize hiding in “The Saturday Evening Post” ticket.
McEachern just began buying this particular ticket several days before purchasing the winning ticket.
“I was in my room and I just screamed ‘I won $10,000,'” McEachern said.
Several members of the sorority, including president Krista Yaktine and junior Meredith Hodges, heard McEachern yell, and went to investigate, and then followed McEachern back to Santa Fe Market.
“I heard her yell out loud ‘I just won $10,000,’ so me and a couple of girls ran to her room and wanted to know what was happening,” Hodges said.
It was hard for McEachern and other members of the sorority to believe, even with the evidence right in front of them.
“A lot of people ran in, and a lot of people didn’t believe me, and I didn’t believe myself,” McEachern said.
It was also hard to believe at first for McEachern’s mother, Catheryn, who McEachern called after finding out she won.
“She said ‘No way,’ and she didn’t believe me,” McEachern said.
McEachern was on her way to her home in McPherson when she bought the winning ticket.
“I’m heading home, because it’s the first time I will be home in three months, and my classes are canceled tomorrow, so I got my fuel here and came inside and got my scratch tickets,” she said.
McEachern will have to go to Topeka to claim what is left of the $10,000 after taxes.
She said she might use the money to invest in a new vehicle.
McEachern’s winning might have inspired others in her sorority to try their luck with lottery tickets.
“I might give it a try, see what happens,” Yaktine said.
Wednesday was not the only lucky lottery day for McEachern. She won $500 on a pull-tab ticket at the Royal Crest Lanes bowling alley in Lawrence last year.
Luck is a relative term, and McEachern considers herself lucky in more ways than one.
“I think I’m very lucky,” McEachern said. “And not just with winning, just in general.”