COEUR d'ALENE - There's an old saying that "bad things come in threes," but for Donna Wallar, it was two bad things and one very, very good thing.

The Ephrata, Wash., woman won the big prize Wednesday in the North Idaho College Foundation's annual Really BIG Raffle - a $250,000 house.

"Oh no, really? Oh my God, I don't believe it," Wallar, 72, exclaimed when NIC Foundation director Rayelle Anderson called the woman's cell phone to give her the news. "I'm so excited. I've had nothing but bad luck the last two weeks."

Her home was broken into, and then the thieves came back and stole her car.

The vehicle was recovered, but damaged and disabled.

That's why Wallar, who is retired, was having a late dinner in a Washington restaurant with a friend, rather than sitting on the NIC campus with the roughly 2,000 other ticket holders who turned out for the drawing.

"This is just wonderful," Wallar said.

She bought the winning ticket in mid-May at the Trading Company Stores grocery store in Post Falls.

Wallar estimates it's the eighth Really BIG Raffle ticket she has bought since about 1998 when she bought her first, while visiting her daughter who used to live in Post Falls.

She's not sure whether she will live in the new home or sell it.

"I have a son who is desperate for a house," Wallar said.

Wallar's prize home has four bedrooms, three baths and sits on Madellaine Drive in Greenstone Homes' Coeur d'Alene Place neighborhood. Greenstone is the event's major sponsor.

Built by NIC carpentry students with assistance from Stock Building Supply, it is the 18th home the NIC Foundation has raffled off.

The foundation gave away nearly $300,000 in prizes this year.

Other big winners include Paul Wedeberg of Snohomish, Wash., who won a $20,000 car; Jennifer Erickson of Coeur d'Alene, winner of a $10,000 boat; Lynda Orsburn, of Spokane Valley, who won a $3,500 travel package; and Spirit Lake resident Justin Millette, winner of a $2,000 shopping spree.

There were 5,000 tickets sold for $100 each by the NIC Foundation, an independent nonprofit in charge of fundraising for the college.

Anderson, said about 30 percent of the tickets sold are purchased by Washington residents who drive across the state line to buy them.

Tickets have sold out every year since 1993, the year of the first Really BIG Raffle. Through the years, the event raised $3 million for the college.

This year's raffle has raised $218,000 to help students in programs at NIC.

"We gave $600,000 in scholarships to North Idaho College students this year," Anderson said.

Anderson said they are especially grateful to the community for supporting the raffle despite the economic challenges faced by many people.