A honeymoon raffle?
Four years ago, Emil and Joleen Wisch tied the knot and were looking forward to their honeymoon at a beautiful Mexican resort not too far from Cancun.
However, a hurricane ruined their plans, and the newlyweds never got a chance to enjoy their vacation.
Until last week.
Unbeknownst to her husband, Joleen, 28, purchased a $100 ticket for the Lincoln-Way Education Foundation House Raffle, and if you ask Joleen, she wasn't going to get her hopes up.
"I was hoping to be one of the 10 people to win $1,000," the Tinley Park resident said. "I figured I'd put in $100 and would get $900 back. That would've been good."
Instead, Joleen was the grand prize winner and took home $165,000 before taxes.
Emil had been out of work since February, and Joleen said he would have been upset had he known she spent money on a raffle ticket. The day of the drawing, Joleen said she and Emil were about to go to Target. She went upstairs to put on her socks and then heard the phone ring.
"Emil was like, 'Do you know anyone with an 815 area code?'" she said.
Frantic, Joleen rushed to the phone and to her surprise found out she won. Emil, on the other hand, was lost.
"He was like: 'You did what? You won what? Are you sure?'" Joleen said.
Joleen said because of the win "we actually get to take a real honeymoon."
Their anniversary was the day before the drawing.
This year, the foundation didn't meet its goal of selling 6,000 tickets, said Linda Lopez, executive director for the foundation. Only 35,001 tickets were sold. However, it was an 8 percent increase from the number of tickets that were sold last year.
Lopez said when the foundation doesn't hit the minimum goal to give the house away, it then becomes a 50-50 raffle split.
The 3,000-square-foot house in Mokena was built by students at North, Central and East in the building trades program, Lopez said. The home belongs to the district and will be sold later.
