April 15, 2012 was a life-changing day for Alicia and Justin Francoeur.
On that day, they became mortgage-free homeowners when they won the Prince George Spruce Kings Show Home Lottery grand prize, a $440,000 luxury home with all the bells and whistles they could only dream of the day before.
"The house is beautiful," said Alicia. "Before we won the house we were just renting and everything we ever talked about that we wanted in a house, it has. Obviously, we wouldn't have been able to afford a house like this."
Justin's aunt, Sue Shusek, gave him the winning ticket for his 27th birthday.
At the time of the draw, Justin was working at Lakeland Mills sawmill (eight days before the mill exploded) and Alicia, who was pregnant at the time, was working in customer service for Telus. They had an 18-month old son, Emmitt, who was born with a condition which prevented his optic nerve from developing, which left him legally blind.
Living in a rented house, they struggled to keep on top of the bills and their young son required daily injections of growth hormone and regular trips to Vancouver for treatments.
They decided to move in right away to their new neighbourhood on Links Drive in the Aberdeen Glen subdivision and they are still reaping the benefits of having their own home and the extra income they save from not having to pay rent.
"It's so nice (not to have a mortgage," said Alicia. "It's amazing, I was able to quit my job and we have three kids now, so I get to stay home with them, which is huge. That's the biggest thing that has changed for us."
Justin now works for CN Rail as a rail car mechanic.
Emmitt is now five, Kenzie is three and now they have a baby sister, five-month-old Norie.
"This is an awesome little neighbourhood, there are quite a few younger kids our kids' age on our street and they put that park in around the corner," said Alicia. "The neighbours are so nice and there's lots of places to go hiking up here. You're out of the way and it's quiet but we're still in the central part of town. The neighbourhood is nice and safe."
One of the perks of living there is Alicia, 29, and Justin, 31, get one day per week of free golf at Aberdeen Glen Golf Course. They like to golf, but with young kids to look after, they rarely go.
"We just bought a side-by-side (quad) this year and it's really fun, the kids love it," said Alicia. "We got married in 2014 and we each bought brand-new vehicles. This has helped so much with everything."
On Monday, the Spruce Kings will hand over the keys to the lucky winner of a 2,712 square-foot show home, built by Scheck Construction, worth $495,000. Located at 2662 Links Dr., it includes five appliances and a security system with one year's monitoring.
Justin and Alicia's family members have been buying tickets on the show home lottery for 30 years and they are now continuing that tradition.
"We buy one every year to support the Spruce Kings," said Alicia. "It's only $100, and really your chances aren't that bad for winning. It's not like it's one in a million, it's one in 10,000."
This is the 34th show home draw for the Spruce Kings. It has completely sold out in each of the past six years. Tickets for the house are $100 each and $20 for the 50/50 draw. The prize for the 50/50 will be as much as $40,000.
"It looks like the 50/50 will sell out by Friday but we do have a bit of a hill to climb with the show home," said Spruce Kings business and marketing manager, Lu Verticchio.
"We have 1,330 tickets left (out of 10,000 originally available)."
The show home lottery is the bread-and-butter fundraiser for the community-owned Spruce Kings, annually providing 65 per cent of the B.C. Hockey League team's operating budget. The hockey operations cost $500,00 annually, including a $155,000 bill for the cost of traveling to 28 road games. The team's stick budget is $30,000 and it costs about $38,000 to provide billet housing for out-of-town players.
"People buy tickets for two reasons: one is they want to support the the team, and the other, of course, is, in the back of their mind, they want to win it. It could change your life dramatically."
Verticchio said people are under the impression they have to live in the house or keep it for a year before they can sell it, but that's not the case. The winner can sell it immediately at its face value, tax-free.
Tickets are available at Canadian Tire, The Northern, Pine Centre Mall, Central Builders, Hart Home Hardware, Save-On-Foods (Spruceland Mall), the Spruce Kings office at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, and at the show home.
The 50/50 draw happens Monday at 3 p.m. at the show home.
Then at 3:30, the winning ticket for the house will be drawn by mayor Lyn Hall.
The house is open for tours every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
A virtual tour video is available at www.sprucekingsshowhome.ca.
