Q&A
Roberta and Jack Derrick of Englewood won $500,000 in the Colorado Lottery’s $35 Million Cash Spectacular scratch-off game.
Jack is retiring Friday after 38 years with Dillard’s department store. Roberta, who answered The Denver Post’s questions, has worked for Michael Handler Inc., a furniture store, for 26 years and has no plans of retiring.
After taxes, the couple gets $355,000. They bought the winning ticket at the 7-Eleven at 4601 S. Broadway in Englewood.
Q: How did you discover you had won?
A: It was last Wednesday evening after dinner. I was scratching three lottery tickets I had traded in from another ticket. That was when I realized I was a winner.
Q: What went through your mind when you realized you had won?
A: Oh, gosh. At first you just kind of go blank, then you realize this is a lot of money, and then you run and put it in the safe. You have to go to the Lottery office. I looked it up, and the next morning at 8 o’clock we took it in. I walked in and said, “I happen to have a very nice ticket,” and all these people started coming out congratulating us.
Q: What are you going to do with the money?
A: That’s what everybody always wants to know. I put the money in the bank, and let’s just say life got easier for the Derrick family. My husband is retiring on Friday, and he’s always been a saver, so he had his retirement all lined up already.
Q: Will you continue to play the lottery, since playing with winnings brought you a bigger prize?
A: Absolutely. I love playing it. I buy tickets here and there. In all honesty, I had quit buying tickets for a while. This is something my mother and I enjoyed doing together, and since her death a few years ago I had lost interest. When this game came out, I liked the look of the tickets, but normally I don’t play expensive tickets. These were $10 apiece.
– Joey Bunch, Denver Post staff writer
REGIONAL NOTES
PARKER
Brick sale backs park artwork
Donors can leave their mark on Parker through a personalized-brick campaign that will help complete the purchase and installation of “Timestones,” a work created by local artist Greg Sweatt in the town’s O’Brien Park.
The bricks, starting at $50, will display the designee’s name in the park plaza near the artwork. Bricks can honor, for example, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, holidays or a loved one, teacher, mentor, friend or anyone else the donor admires. Deadline for all orders is Aug. 28. For more information, call Bill Meyer at 303-805-3263.
BOULDER
U.S. funds help affordable housing
The city has received more than $750,000 in federal funds to help secure affordable housing.
Boulder will get $752,189 in 2006 HOME Investment Partnership money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That money will combine with funds from the city’s community development block grant to go toward affordable housing-related projects such as renovating existing units and securing land for future units.
Boulder has a goal of at least 10 percent of its housing being affordable. There are about 2,680 affordable housing units in the city right now. The median home price in Boulder is around $500,000.
DENVER POST STAFF REPORTS
