Wow. What a day we’ve had here at the lottery! We just met and celebrated with about 50 people who all were part of the group that came here to lottery headquarters with Iowa’s biggest lottery winners EVER.
There was cheering. There was confetti. There was probably a little crying (happy tears), too!
It was all for a group of 20 co-workers from the shipping department at the Quaker Oats cereal plant in Cedar Rapids who claimed the $241 million Powerball jackpot from last Wednesday’s drawing.
The group admitted that they had the worst-kept secret in the state, as word of their win had spread like wildfire -- first through the plant in downtown Cedar Rapids where they work and then almost as quickly through the community.
The group formed a trust calling itself The Shipping 20 and chose to receive the jackpot in the lump-sum option of $160.3 million. Members of The Shipping 20 said they’ve played Powerball together for years, with each person chipping in $5 for tickets, but only when the jackpot was $100 million or higher. Each member of the group – 18 men and two women – will receive about $8 million ($5.6 million after withholding taxes).
The group’s winning ticket is the seventh overall in Iowa to win Powerball’s big prize.
Members of the group range in age from 35 to 64 and all live in and around Cedar Rapids. All are long-time employees of the Quaker Oats plant and are members of Local 110 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. On the job, they ship out boxes of Quaker Oats cereal from the plant. At least 11 members of the group said they would retire after winning the prize.
For this particular drawing, the group bought its tickets at Hy-Vee, 5050 Edgewood Road in Cedar Rapids. One of those tickets beat the odds to win the jackpot. Hy-Vee will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket and store officials have said the money will be shared on that front as well, with workers at the store seeing some of the bonus in their own bonus checks.
The winning numbers in last Wednesday’s Powerball drawing were: 7-10-14-33-57 and Powerball 18. The Shipping 20’s ticket matched all six numbers drawn that night to win the jackpot.
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June 20, 2012
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As the lottery’s vice president of external relations, I’m a member of the senior management team at the Iowa Lottery, where I’ve worked since 1999. I’ve spent my years at the lottery learning as much as I can about all the ins and outs of the lottery industry. I’ll put that knowledge to work here so I can share the behind-the-scenes details with you!
Yes, it was an easy pick.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | June 25, 2012 at 08:49 AM
Was the winning ticket a computer pick?
Posted by: Adam Allick | June 24, 2012 at 12:55 PM