New Year's resolution comes true

Most people who make New Year's resolutions plan to take an entire year to achieve them.

Dawna McCallum is not most people.

She didn't even have to wait a single day for hers to come true.

McCallum, of Spokane, told friends and family her New Year's resolution was to win enough playing the lottery to pay off some recently accrued medical bills and become debt free.

On the morning of Dec. 30, after a business meeting in Coeur d'Alene, McCallum stopped at Super Store 24 in Post Falls to start making her resolution a reality.

"I was in the store deciding what to buy and I saw the display for Weekly Grand," said McCallum of the Idaho Lottery's newest draw game. "I don't need a lot and thought $1,000 a week for a year would be just enough to get me out of debt. So I bought a ticket."

The next day, on New Year's Eve, the Idaho Lottery recorded its third jackpot winner on Weekly Grand since the regular $2 Idaho-only draw game debuted last August. It was McCallum's ticket, although she wouldn't learn she was the winner for another two weeks.

In Weekly Grand, players who match all five numbers correctly win the game's jackpot - $1,000 each week for an entire year, with taxes being paid by the Idaho Lottery. The total prize amount begins at $77,380, which after taxes is $52,000.

"I did it," McCallum said while claiming her winnings at lottery headquarters in Boise on

Wednesday afternoon. "I made my New Year's resolution come true. This is just perfect. I'll be debt free and be able to treat my family to a nice vacation."

McCallum is a project manager with Mac's Metals, a structural steel, aluminum and metal fabrication company in Spokane. The company worked on the Riverstone project in Coeur d'Alene and does business routinely in Idaho which is what allows McCallum to visit Idaho on a regular basis to check her tickets.

Super Store 24, at 4000 W. Riverbend Ave. at Exit 2 on Interstate 90, receives a $7,738 bonus from the Idaho Lottery.