Luke Becker (right) is shown with his fiancée, Lauren Kimball, and Tim Atterburg with Cyclone Sports Properties.
THIS Iowa State grad is going to Ireland to see the Cyclones™ play football in Dublin!
On Tuesday, Luke Becker of Des Moines was selected as the winner of a VIP trip for two to Ireland in the Iowa Lottery’s Dublin Your Luck promotion. The promotion gave away a travel package to Dublin to see Iowa State take on Kansas State in the teams’ 2025 football season opener on Aug. 23 at Aviva Stadium.
Luke, a 2023 Iowa State graduate, claimed his prize on Friday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. He said he knew he’d entered tickets into the promotion, but still had trouble believing it when an Iowa Lottery staffer called him on Tuesday to say that he was the winner.
Trying To Be Calm At Work
Luke said he was at work in the middle of his office when he learned the news, so he couldn’t yell or have a big reaction. He quietly let his fiancée, Lauren Kimball, and his parents know that he thought he’d won.
Luke said his parents immediately started scouring the Iowa Lottery website and sent him a screenshot showing his name as the promotion winner. That’s when it all really started to sink in.
The Tickets He Entered Were Gifts
Luke said he thinks all the “Cyclone” scratch tickets he entered in the promotion were gifts from his parents or his fiancée’s grandparents, who all wanted he and Lauren to have the chance to go to Ireland.
Luke said the outcome seems just crazy to him. And he knows that without their family members having fun while buying tickets, this wouldn’t be happening.
The lottery’s Dublin Your Luck promotion was open for entries from Dec. 2 through this past Monday, Feb. 10. The lottery held the promotion's drawing on Tuesday and one of Luke’s tickets was selected as the winner out of more than 17,100 entries.
Luke’s plus-one for the trip will be Lauren, a current Iowa State student majoring in education. Lauren said that her great-grandparents immigrated to America from Ireland, her mother studies their family history, and they celebrate their Irish ancestry.
Lauren said she’s pretty sure her parents will be purchasing tickets to the Iowa State game in Dublin so they also can be there!
What’s In The Trip Package
Luke’s travel prize package for two includes airfare, lodging, game tickets to the Iowa St.-Kansas St. football game on Aug. 23, $5,000 spending money and a merchandise pack.
He said he’s sure there will be a thousand things for them to do to pack their time in Dublin, in addition to going to the game.
“Ireland has been on our radar outside of this game for someplace we wanted to visit,” he said. “And so to now have it be a football game in addition to the days there to just tour the city and experience everything local … We’re ready to go when the plane is ready.”
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