Findlay woman wins $1M Vax-a-Million prize, Cincinnati teen wins scholarship

Fifth and final drawing slated for Monday

The Ohio Lottery tonight announced the winners of the fourth round of the state’s Vax-a-Million drawing.

Suzanne Ward of Findlay won the $1 million prize, and Sean Horning of Cincinnati won a full-ride college scholarship.

The drawing took place on Monday and included 3,428,514 entries for the $1 million prize and 150,187 entries for the college scholarship, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That’s an increase of 66,311 entries for money and 6,583 entries for the scholarship from last week.

Ohio is using federal CARES Act money to fund the prizes.

Here’s what you should know about the drawings:

When will the winners be announced?

The fourth round winners were named at 7:29 p.m. on live TV and online at https://ohiovaxamillion.com/prizes-schedule.html.

The fifth and final round of winners will be announced on June 23.

The Ohio Department of Health will use the time between the drawing on Monday and naming of the winners on Wednesday to verify that the winners are valid entrants and meet the campaign’s rules. If a winner rejects the prize or is not eligible, the state will select the first alternate and so on until a valid winner is found.

What are the prizes?

The Ohio Vax-a-Million campaign will award five $1 million prizes and five full college scholarships to Ohioans 12 and older who have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine over five weeks.

Ohioans 18 and older are eligible for the $1 million prize and youth 12 to 17 are eligible for the scholarship.

Scholarships will cover room and board, tuition and books for four years at any Ohio state college, university or technical or trade school. The winners of the scholarships will choose which school they attend. However, winning the scholarship does not guarantee admission.

The state will work with any winners who wish to attend a private Ohio university, Gov. Mike DeWine said previously.

Winners of the million dollar prize will be responsible for paying any related taxes.

When is the next drawing?

The fifth and final drawing is scheduled to take place Monday, June 21.

The Ohio Lottery is using a random number generator to select winners, which is a computer that randomly picks a winner and alternates for each drawing.

While the public will not be able to watch the drawing, a representative from the Ohio Auditor’s Office will be present.

Prior to each drawing, the state will go through entries to remove duplicates.

Once the computer selects a winning number, it’s entered into the database to reveal the winner. Then the lottery draw staff and representative from the auditor’s office both sign off on the drawing.

For a behind the scenes look at random number generator drawings, view the video from the Ohio Lottery below:

How do you sign up?

To sign up, visit https://ohiovaxamillion.com/index.html and select “Adult Registration” for the $1 million drawing or “12-17 Year Old Registration” for the college scholarship drawing.

Participants also can call the Ohio Department of Health at 1-833-4-ASK-ODH between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. to register.

To be eligible to win, entrants must be a permanent Ohio resident and U.S. citizen with who has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine the Sunday prior to the drawing date. Participants must be 12 or older.

Entrants do not need to have been vaccinated in Ohio to be eligible, however, ODH will ask for proof of vaccination.

Eligible residents can only enter once. Entries not selected automatically carry over to the next drawing.

Who has won already?

Ohio has announced six winners in the three drawings so far.

Winners of the $1 million prize include Mark Cline of Union County, Jonathan Carlyle of Toledo and Abbigail Bugenski of Hamilton County. Sara Afaneh of Lorain County, Zoie Vincent of Cuyahoga County and Joseph Costello of Englewood won the scholarships.

While Cline was excited to win a million dollars, he said it’s more about getting the vaccine.

“I hope everyone makes the decision to get it,” he said.

Anafeh, who will be in eighth grade next year, said she’s thought about going to college, but hasn’t considered schools yet.

Carlyle plans to use the prize to purchase a home for his family, which includes his 5-month-old son.

“This is so welcome,” he said. “I can’t explain how much pressure this is going to take off.”

Vincent will be a high school senior next year and has already started thinking about college and her future.

“I’m definitely interested in medicine,” she said.

Vincent is considering Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University for college, but is also looking at other schools.

Bugenske, who won $1 million, said she thought it was a prank when she heard she won and Costello said he still hadn’t really processed it yet.

Costello isn’t sure what he wants to study in college, but is considering Miami University or Ohio State University.

Bugenske said she had plans to buy a used car and would donate some of the $1 million prize to charity as well as invest it.

Does Ohio have other vaccine incentives?

DeWine said last week that more information about additional vaccine incentives and prizes should be coming in the next few days.

“We have some kind of additional incentives and things the private sector has been working on,” he said.

Some private businesses and organizations in the state have already announced their own rewards for getting vaccinated.

In May, Kroger announced its own $1 million giveaways as well as free groceries for a year. The grocery chain is giving away $1 million to five people and free groceries to 50 people.

To sign up, visit https://krogergiveaway.com/.

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden hosted a vaccine clinic on Tuesday. Everyone who receives the vaccine gets free admission to the zoo that day.

A Green County Public Health vaccine clinic over the weekend offered patients a free day at the shooting range and in April the Cincinnati Reds offered discounted tickets to fans who showed proof of vaccination.

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