Small Town is Big on Lottery Luck
Group of 31 from Laporte, Minn. Share $200,000 Powerball® Prize
 OCTOBER 8, 2009 — A group of 31 people, who are all regular customers at the Popple Bar in the small town of Laporte, have a big reason to celebrate — the group won a $200,000 Powerball prize on Sept. 26.
Bruce Geckler, who is a bartender at the Popple Bar, has been running the Powerball pool for the last seven years. “It’s a great way to get the community together and have fun,” he said. “It gives them a reason to stop in and see us.”
Thirty-one regulars stopped in to contribute $5 each for the Powerball drawing on Saturday, Sept. 26. The following morning, Geckler checked the group’s tickets and discovered that one of them matched the first five numbers drawn to win a $200,000 prize. “I couldn’t believe it,” Geckler recalled. “You want to win, but you don’t really expect to.”
It didn’t take long for the rest of the group members to discover their windfall. “Almost everyone found out at the bar on Sunday,” explained Geckler. “I’ve never seen the bar so upbeat — everyone was chattering and happy. You could just feel the tempo in the bar lift up.”
Laporte Grocery & Meat, located at 20 E. Main St. in Laporte, sold the inning ticket.
The winning Powerball numbers drawn on Sept. 26 were 18-20-34-36-39 and the Powerball was 19.
The Popple People group members are: Benedict: James Belt Jr.; Cass Lake: Grant Pickar; Lake George: Jon Harvey, Timothy Johannsen; Laporte: Ruth Albrecht, Bruce Blanchard, Orlan Blanchard, Ronald Burgess, Randall Burmayer, Thomas Ferguson, Bruce Geckler, Audrey Halverson, Roger Hoffmann, Stephen Johnson, Raymond Kloehn, Marie Lindahl, Craig Mackey, Jean Makarrall, Craig Marjamaa, Eric Marjamaa, Wanda Nelson, Michael Olson, Deborah Sauer, Heidi Schmidt, Mark Schmidt, Mike Secrest, Stuart Sheets, Lawrence Spangenberg; New Brighton: James Morgan; Pengilly: Michele Johannsen; St. Paul: Robert Holmberg.
Proceeds from the Minnesota State Lottery benefit all Minnesotans. Since 1990, the Lottery has raised more than $1.7 billion for state programs. The General Fund has received over $1 billion to help fund important functions such as education, public safety and health and human services. Another $677 million has funded critical environmental programs.
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