Jason Denty and Tracey Barry are the latest winners of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association’s Ultimate Dream Home Lottery. The couple won the grand prize of a home located in St. John’s on Stavanger Drive.
“I didn’t know what to do,” said Denty. “I thought first that I am after pulling so many pranks, and carrying on. … We have a lot of fun around home.”
He said a friend thought he was trying to pull a fast one.
“He kept saying, ‘Good one, good one, good try, good try,’” Denty said.
He got the call 2:30 p.m. Feb. 3 from Terry Martin, the organization’s director of funds development, with the news that he had won the home located on Stavanger Drive in St. John’s.
“He said, ‘Jason, are you sitting down?’” Denty recalled, adding he did not recognize the voice and at first thought it might have been a work-related call.
Denty said that he will never forget the words the man spoke next. “He said, ‘Did you buy a Dream Home ticket?’… I said, ‘Yes, I brought several.’ He said, ‘You better sit down in case you just won the grand prize.’”
After receiving the news, Denty called his girlfriend, Tracey Barry, to fill her in on what had happened.
“I was driving home from a doctor’s appointment, and he called me. He told me. I was like, ‘No, you didn’t, Jason.’ I wouldn’t believe him, so he hung up,” Barry said with a chuckle.
She quickly made her way home.
“Sure enough when we got into the driveway, he came out of the garage just the same as normal until he got to me,” she said.
Barry said when she saw the look on his face, she knew it was no joke that the couple had indeed won the grand prize worth $740,000.
The couple told The Southern Gazette they have had many people calling and dropping by congratulating them on their win.
Denty, who works during the summer months with a paving company, said they have decided to take a cash payout in place of the home.
“We (have) a beautiful home in Boat Harbour. I got it well established there. … That’s where the heart is,” he said. “I am in the country. I love the country — I can jump on my quad or Ski-Doo and I’m there.”
The couple said with both of them having jobs in the area, as well as a large number of friends and family, it does not make sense for them to move.
“It will break my heart to walk in that house and have to turn around and walk out and leave it,” said Barry.
Along with the home, Denty also won a 2016 Kia Soul LX, home furnishings and his and her’s wardrobes.
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