William Schad of Muskegon now knows what it's like to feel like a million bucks actually, in his case, two million bucks! He became the Michigan Lottery's newest millionaire on Friday, January 16, 2004 while participating in a mid-court drawing at halftime during the Detroit Pistons vs. Washington Wizards NBA basketball game.
"No kidding!" said Schad, upon learning he had been chosen as one of the five finalists for the Michigan Lottery's "$2,000,000 Fortune" grand-prize drawing. "Holy moley! I am so surprised and excited to be chosen as a finalist!"
On the night of the grand-prize drawing, Schad and the other four finalists had the opportunity to run onto the court at The Palace of Auburn Hills just like the NBA basketball players do. The Piston's Automotion dance team formed a tunnel in which each finalist ran through to get to center court. Once at center court, balls were drawn from a giant tumbler and finalists were eliminated one-by-one until Schad was the last finalist standing.
"The whole experience was unbelievable," Schad said. "The drawing was going by so fast and when it got down to just two of us left, I was just standing there in shock! When the announcer yelled out my name as the winner I couldn't believe it!"
As he made his way up thorough the stands of The Palace following the drawing, Schad was greeted with cheers and "high-fives" from audience members. While he felt like a star, Schad was thrilled to get back to his wife, Lori. As soon as he saw her, Schad ran to Lori and hugged her, as they celebrated becoming instant multi-millionaires!
The 57-year-old Schad told Lottery officials that he plans to use part of his winnings to pay bills, go back to college and make a donation to his church. He added that he has not yet decided what he will do with the rest of his winnings.
"I am just so thrilled to win," Schad said. "I feel so lucky to have won the grand prize and I am so grateful to the Lottery for giving me the opportunity to be in the drawing!"
The $2,000,000 grand prize is set up to be awarded in the form of an annuity payment over 20 years, but the grand-prize winner has the option of claiming the $2,000,000 prize as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $1,308,532 the present cash value of the game's $2,000,000 top prize, before taxes. Schad will travel to Lottery headquarters in Lansing in the near future to claim the prize. He has not yet decided at this time whether he will take the annuity payments or the lump-sum payout.
Schad, who said he enjoys fishing, golfing and spending time with his dog, Rusty, in his free time, purchased the $1,000 winning ticket that entered him into the finalist drawing at Wesco #49,
1675 E. Apple Ave., in Muskegon.
The "$2,000,000 Fortune" game is different from most other Michigan Lottery instant games because the $2,000,000 top prize was awarded through a drawing. All winners of $1,000 prizes in the "$2,000,000 Fortune" instant game (those who redeemed their tickets prior to January 7) were automatically entered into a finalist drawing. From the complete pool of qualifiers, five finalists were selected on Friday, January 9, 2004 to participate in the grand-prize drawing.
The new (unnamed AFAIK) lottery director in NY needs to make changes to allow big scratch ticket winners to collect in lump sum.