Kelly wins $50,000 in lottery game

SANDPOINT — A lifelong believer in paying it forward had good will roll back her direction after winning the top prize in an Idaho Lottery scratch game.

Sandpoint resident Sherry Kelly won $50,000 after purchasing an “Aerosmith Dream On” scratch ticket at Babe’s One Stop. For the longtime local, the money couldn’t have come at a better time.

“My husband and I are retired and on a fixed income,” she said. “But because of some surgeries my husband needed, it looked like we weren’t going to make ends meet.”

Kelly left a job at McDonald’s in Ponderay to care for her husband when he became sick. Due to the mounting medical bills, however, she had committed herself to reassuming her position.

“I was kind of hesitant because of my husband’s health,” she said.

While visiting the McDonald’s, she shared her reservations about the return to work with her sister, who advised her to pick up some lottery tickets on her way home.

“I’ve been playing the scratch lotto since the game started in Idaho,” Kelly said. “I never spend a whole lot of money — just a few dollars here and there.”

Dropping by Babe’s One Stop, she picked up a couple of dollar tickets for her husband.

When she noticed the five dollar ticket she normally purchased wasn’t in stock, she instead selected the adjacent option — the “Aerosmith Dream On” scratch game.

When she returned home, Kelly gave the dollar tickets to her husband, who didn’t win anything. She then scratched the Aerosmith ticket, eventually revealing a guitar symbol. According to the ticket, a guitar indicated an automatic prize she thought amounted to $50.

“Then I kept scratching and I got another zero, then another zero, then another zero,” she said. “I told my husband, ‘I think I just won $50,000.’ He said, ‘That can’t be right.’”

A trip back to Babe’s One Stop confirmed the ticket’s legitimacy. She would need to travel to Boise in order to claim the prize. Kelly’s reaction to the news was a memorable one.

“You cry, you go ‘woo-hoo’ and you do a little dance,” she said. “And then you realize, ‘I don’t have to go back to work.’”

The Kellys plan to first pay their bills and then use the money to supplement their monthly income. They also look forward to supporting their kids with the nice extras they couldn’t otherwise afford. 

 “Our big thing is being able to live comfortably on our fixed income,” she said.

A fervent proponent of random good deeds, Kelly and her husband have a history of returning lost wallets containing hundreds of dollars to their owners or giving down-on-their-luck individuals whatever they could spare.

While in Boise to collect her prize, she even helped out a young mother trying to return home to Wyoming.

It seems to Kelly that her policy of paying it forward has come full circle.

“I just believe in helping your fellow man if you can,” she said.