Among the employees from VUMC’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic who split a $50,000 Powerball win were Ailish Garrett, Laronda Matthews, Robin Dalal, Miranda Hungerman, Sara Horst, Dana Fulton and Peggy Galvis. Photo by Wayne Wood.
What do 01, 03, 13, 19, 41 and 23 add up to?
For 11 employees of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, it amounted to a $50,000 Powerball win.
“We knew something was up when there was a flurry of texts the morning of Oct. 11,” said Dana Fulton, LPN, who works in the clinic. “I kept seeing texts like ‘OMG’ and ‘holy cow’ and ‘Somebody look at this.’ I finally had to throw my phone over to my husband and asked him to check the numbers.
“We had four numbers and the Powerball number,” she said. “We had played the same numbers two weeks in a row.”
Fulton, who was the group’s representative to claim the prize, said it was their first big win.
The group had a contract detailing how the winnings would be handled – anything less than $200 would go back into the pot for the next attempt. Twenty dollars is the entry for each week. Members alternate collecting and buying tickets weekly.
“I kept seeing texts like ‘OMG’ and ‘holy cow’ and ‘Somebody look at this.’ I finally had to throw my phone over to my husband and asked him to check the numbers.”
“We were really lucky,” said Fulton. “Each person picks five numbers every week. It’s random how this all fell into place – the right numbers on the same line and on the same card!”
After taxes, each member will take home $3,409.
Since the win, Fulton reports that there has been chatter of upcoming vacations and credit card payments.
The group, formed 10 months ago, plays every Wednesday and Saturday. Fulton said they are eager to start back up after taking two weeks to get everything in order to claim their winnings.
“You can’t win if you don’t play!” laughed Fulton.
Members of the winning team include Fulton, Vanessa McPherson, medical assistant; Laronda Matthews, LPN; Miranda Hungerman, LPN; Peggy Galvis, R.N.; David Schwartz, M.D.; Dawn Beaulieu, M.D.; Ailish Garrett, N.P.; Kim Annis, P.A.; Robin Dalal, M.D.; and Sara Horst, M.D.
