Food for life

Posted on: jamacsadmin

Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter

Every year at the Calgary Stampede there are all sorts of draws to enter, from cars to boats to cash and even groceries. The Groceries For Life is in its second year and is run by the Lions Club, who have been doing the Lions Lucky Loot for 15 years.

“We decided last year that we needed a second lottery, something new and different, and we determined groceries might be a neat little spin,” said Dave Sawatzky, a member of the Lions lottery.

Kassandra Reed, 21, won the Groceries For Life and will be splitting her prize with her sister and roommate Kourtny, 26. Kassandra is a waitress at the Station restaurant and Kourtny is a customs immigration officer. Every year the girls buy tickets and this year they played for the Chevrolet Camaro, the Lions Lucky Loot and of course for Groceries For Life.  “I kind of didn’t believe it so we rewound the TV to make sure that we did win,” said Kassandra. 

“We were shocked basically. Our mom went a little bit crazy,” said Kourtny. The sisters still looked shocked when they arrived at Stampede head quarters on July 22, where a banquet was held for all of the winners.

The girls bought the 100 tickets for $50. There were only 400,000 tickets printed, giving good odds to players. Groceries For Life doesn’t mean a gift card to Safeway, it’s a cash prize, which is awarded each month. The option is to either be given a cheque for $700 a month for the next 20 years, which works out to approximately $168,000 or take the buyout for $113,000. The Reed sisters decided they would rather have the monthly cheque.
“We’ll save for a trip, not really anything large,” said Kourtny.
“We’ll get a new computer and TV, stuff like that and hopefully groceries eventually,” said Kassandra. The sisters plan to play the Stampede Lotteries again next year, but said they won’t enter for the groceries one again, even if they were allowed to. Sawatzky said at this point the Lions plan to stick with the Groceries For Life lottery, but said they may decide to implement something new in the future.