By Sarah Wallace

Air Cadet raffle finds Prince Albert winner

Nov 27, 2012 | 11:35 AM

Every year the Air Cadets in Saskatchewan hold a raffle that’s provincewide.

This raffle is a major fundraiser that supports the Air Cadets programs and helps raise around $10,000 every year for extra things like extra flying time, transportation to camps and Christmas parties.

Deborah Martin, fundraising chair for the Prince Albert Air Cadets said every year they raffle off a car or $15,000.

Tickets are only sold in Saskatchewan and this year the winner was Lorrie Punter from Prince Albert.

She won out of 70,000 tickets sold in the province and only 1,500 tickets sold in Prince Albert.

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At first Punter couldn’t remember buying the ticket.

“I was like ‘are you sure you got the right number? Are you sure you’re telling me the truth?’ I was totally in shock because I’ve never won anything in my life,” Punter said.

It took her asking a few more times for it to finally sink in.

“They sold me three tickets and that was fine, I never kept the stubs, I threw them in the garbage. I thought ‘I don’t need them, I’ll never win anyhow.’ So I thought ‘well you know what? I feel like going back to buy three more tickets.’ So I went next door and rang the doorbell and said ‘can I purchase three more tickets?’ and she said sure. So I purchased three more tickets and threw the stubs away and forgot all about it until the day of Halloween when I got the call,” said Punter.

She said she’s still in shock and feels like she won the lottery and that she’s never won anything like this before.

She had a choice between a car and the money and she said she already had a really nice SUV, so it was an easy choice.

Punter is a single parent with two sons and says she plans to spoil her boys this Christmas

“I was pretty excited and we’re all still kind of blown away that I’d won this. Like I said, it’s like winning the lottery, so it’s pretty exciting,” Punter said.

This is the first time in a quite a while since the winner was from Prince Albert.

She said she feels it was a combination of luck of the draw and fate and already she has had people come forward.

“I’ve already been there and had that. I said, you know I won $15,000, it’s not like I’ve won a million, but I said if I won a million I don’t know what I’d do because I already don’t like that feeling of, you know you’re getting phone calls or you get asked ‘well what are you going to do with the money?’ It is a lot to me, but it’s still not a lot,” Punter said.

She said a lot of people don’t know yet and hasn’t been telling others she’d won because she likes to keep things to herself.

“A lot of people don’t know still and I just have never mentioned it. I’m proud and I’m happy that I’ve won it but I don’t want to be out bragging, you know, that I’ve won this money and I don’t want people to think that I’m bragging about it. I’m pretty happy to have won this,” she said.

She said it may change once people find out.

Air Cadets is a free program for boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18.

They offer things like learning to fly, learning to fly and pilot gliders, shoot air riffles, the do cross country with shooting, just to name a few things.

Air Cadets also take part in drill team marches, survival camps and summer camps and through these raffles they are able to offer these free programs.

Prince Albert is one of the oldest squadrons in Saskatchewan.

For more information on the Air Cadets program visit their website.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid