Over 150,000 people walked through the PNE Prize Home in the past three weeks.
For the first time in decades, Marnie Odette wasn't one them. An equity trader in Richmond, Odette was too busy to go this year. Turns out it didn't matter.
Entering the draw online, Odette was the 2012 winner of the PNE Prize Home with the lucky number of 32370529.
"Wow," she said when she was reached by phone by PNE president Mike McDaniel. "Thank you so much. [I'm] blown away."
Odette, 39, was watching the Democratic Party convention when she heard the news. "My first thought was that it was a prank call or a telemarketer," she said. "Glad I picked up the phone."
Odette was picked up by limousine and given a tour of the $1.296-million, 3,000-square-foot prize home, which will be moved to Sun Peaks near Kamloops in the next month.
Designed by former ABC Bachelorette Jillian Harris and built by Britco Structures, the home has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sauna, sprawling decks and 20-foot ceilings.
Eyes welling as she entered the house for the first time, she said, "it truly feels like a home."
"It's truly a warm environment. I could be very happy here."
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It's a long way from her Steveston home on which she has a mortgage, but Odette said she doesn't know what she'll do with the prize home yet.
"It's a beautiful home. I'll have to think about it . . . it's overwhelming. But we've got some time to make decisions," she said. She quipped that the house might make the perfect honeymoon for her and her fiancé, who have yet to set a date for their wedding.
Odette will also receive a $2,500 grocery package from IGA, a year's worth of MiniMaid housecleaning and a one-year subscription to The Province.
Money from the lottery goes toward charities and community organizations affiliated with the PNE.
Odette said she would always remember Sept. 6 as the birthday of her two-year-old niece, Jaida. Now she has another reason: "I'm the coolest auntie in the world right now."
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