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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Canfield PTA’s Crazy Cash Giveaway winner Ellen Monroe was joined by her husband Russ, daughter Mena, Canfield PTA president Julie Miller, first vice president overseeing fund raising for the Canfield PTA Noelle Domer, C.H. Campbell Elementary School third-grade teacher Kara Mikolich and Mena’s classmates as she celebrated winning $10,000 on March 5.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Canfield PTA president Julie Miller (left) and first vice president overseeing fund raising for the Canfield PTA Noelle Domer (right) presented Canfield PTA’s Crazy Cash Giveaway winner Ellen Monroe, her husband Russ and her daughter Mena with a check for $10,000 on March 5.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Canfield PTA’s Crazy Cash Giveaway winner Ellen Monroe, her husband Russ and her daughter Mena were presented with a check for $10,000 at C.H. Campbell Elementary School, where Mena is a third-grade student, on March 5.
By ABBY SLANKER
Canfield PTA has a Crazy Cash Giveaway 2019 winner and her name is Ellen Monroe. She won $10,000.
Monroe became the winner of the first Canfield PTA Crazy Cash Giveaway when her ticket was pulled by Canfield boys basketball head coach Todd Muckleroy at halftime of the Feb. 22 varsity game. Monroe was not present at the game, but still came away a big winner.
“We were out to dinner with some friends about the time they pulled the ticket,” said Ellen’s husband Russ. “My hand was really itchy and my friend asked me if I had bought a lottery ticket that day. I said I had and also said I had bought a PTA cash giveaway ticket, not even thinking about winning that. I never really believed in the old itchy hand superstition, but I absolutely do now.”
Ellen and Russ’s daughter, Mena, is a third-grade student at C.H. Campbell Elementary School. Mena sold Ellen the ticket, and it was the only one she bought.
“I only bought one ticket and I really did not think I would win. I don’t even play the lotto because I don’t think I will ever win,” Ellen said.
Ellen bought the ticket to support the PTA.
“Ellen bought the ticket to support a good cause, the schools and the PTA. So it didn’t matter if we won or not, we knew we were supporting the school where our daughter attends,” Russ said.
The Monroes didn’t even know they had won until the next day.
“After we got home from dinner, I saw there was a message, but I didn’t even listen to it. I checked the messages the next morning and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had Ellen listen and she said maybe it was for a smaller prize, not believing we had won the grand prize of $10,000. I called Noelle back and confirmed and was just like...wow,” Russ said.
The Monroes have a few plans for the money.
“We are going to put the majority of it in Mena’s savings account. We are also going to use some to travel to Florida to see family and Ellen wants some new counter tops in the kitchen,” Russ said.
According to Noelle Domer, first vice president overseeing fundraising for the Canfield PTA, all students will benefit from the general fundraiser.
“This is our first general fundraiser. All Canfield students will benefit from the money raised. Once we have tallied our final profit, we will reach out to the administration and PTA membership to get ideas and suggestions on how to use the money. Then the executive PTA board will vote on how to use it. We would like to use it on something tangible. We will not use it all right now. We will use it as determined by the board,” Domer said.
Julie Miller, Canfield PTA president, said the organization hopes to have the raffle again next year.
“We hope to do this again next year. We sold approximately 450 tickets this year and hope to increase that next year. We are so excited to award this money to the Monroes. Congratulations to them. We are so happy for them. It couldn’t have happened to better people,” Miller said.