By Latika Lee
Contributing Writer

July 16 began as an ordinary day for Ann and Ronnie Oliver. Their usual Saturday “going to market” trip included errands at Lowe’s, Walmart and PetCo. After driving the 60-mile round trip, they decided to make a familiar stop at Al’s Market at 3440 Anderson Highway on Route 60. That’s when their ordinary day turned into an extraordinary pay day… winning $1,000 per week for life in the Virginia Lottery “Win for Life” game.

“They know me here. We needed gas for the van and the Weed Eater,” said Ann Oliver. “I usually get one $5 Win for Life scratcher and one $1 computer pick. We come here all of the time.”

After purchasing the tickets, on behalf of her husband Ronnie, who is confined to a wheelchair, Ann stuck it in her pocket book.

“We usually wait and watch the drawing on Saturday night. But, we never won, so I said the heck with it and was just waiting until we came back to the store to check the winning numbers,” Oliver said. Drawings are held on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 11 p.m.

Ronnie was watching the news during the following week, when it was announced that a winning ticket had been bought at Al’s Market, but no one had come forward to claim the prize. That started him thinking.

Ronnie saw the first two numbers, but that’s all he could remember, so he called the convenience store and asked for the winning numbers—29-30-32-38-39-41 and the Free Ball number was 13. The chances of winning the top prize were one in 5,245,786. All of his numbers matched.

The Olivers then called their son who owns Rapid Manufacturing, a Powhatan precision parts company, and his girlfriend, Debbie, a banking professional,  who checked the numbers on the Virginia Lottery website.

“We were holding on to the ticket, afraid to leave it in the house, just in case it caught on fire or something,” said Ann, “but it worked out.”

Lottery officials say losing a lottery ticket is almost like losing cash, but you can protect yourself by signing the back of your tickets when you buy them.
Unless you sign a ticket, anyone else who has the ticket can claim the prize. The Olivers took the ticket to the Virginia Lottery’s Customer Service “Prize Zone” Center in Farmville where the numbers were verified.

“First we plan on doubling up on some of the payments of our medical bills, and when we get caught up, we’ll do a few things around the house, some remodeling since its 21 years old,” said Ronnie, “other than that no big plans, nothing will really change.”

“We aren’t going out buying new vehicles or anything like that …just do the things we want to do,” Ann said. The Olivers weren’t the only winners on that day. Sukhdev Singh, assistant manager at Al’s Market says the store also benefitted. “The store will receive a one-time $10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery for selling the winning ticket,” he said. 
Al’s Market has the second largest lottery ticket sales volume in Powhatan.

“A store that has sold a winning ticket can benefit in more than one way,” said John Hagerty, Virginia Lottery Communications Specialist, “People regard it as a “lucky store”, of course, you can’t guarantee that, but the store sees an increase in sales.”

With every ticket sold whether it wins or loses, a portion of the sale benefits K-12 education. 

The Virginia Lottery generates approximately $1.2 million per day for Virginia’s K-12 public schools.