Marquette County, Mich., woman wins $1 million
Drawing Date: 8/7/2015
August 14, 2015 - Winning a $1 million Mega Millions prize is still sinking in for a lucky Marquette County, Mich., player.
Sara Hupp, of Champion, Mich., won $1 million after her Mega Millions ticket matched the five white balls drawn – 01-38-53-63-66 – in Friday night’s drawing (August 7). She purchased the winning ticket at Kassel’s Korner, located at 235 East U.S. 41 in Negaunee. Negaunee is about 12 miles southwest of Marquette.
“I still don’t totally believe I won,” said Hupp while in Lansing on Thursday to collect her big prize. “I play Mega Millions twice a week, but had never given much thought to winning big.”
Hupp stayed up later than normal Friday evening watching the news. After the news finished, she opened the Lottery app on her phone to check her ticket.
“I’m normally in bed by the time the drawing happens, but since I was up, I checked the results on my phone,” said Hupp. “As I read through the numbers, I thought ‘Am I reading this right?’ After checking the numbers a few more times, I was pretty certain I had a big winner.
“When I woke up the next morning and checked the ticket again, that is when I realized that I wasn’t dreaming,” said Hupp.
Hupp quickly learned that good news travels fast in a small town. Less than 300 people call Champion, which is about 35 miles northwest of Marquette, home and many of them know Hupp is the lucky winner.
“I only told a few people, but quite a few others have heard I’m the winner,” said Hupp. “Co-workers have told me that they have overheard people at work talking about who the lucky winner is.”
Hupp is still deciding what to do with her $1 million prize.
“I’ve played for years, but I’m not the type of person who plans out what they’d do if they won big,” Hupp said. “Winning $1 million still seems so surreal and probably will until the check is in the bank.”
Hupp does have a piece of advice for those who are skeptical of the Lottery.
“A lot of people think they could never win, but I always say ‘If you don’t take a chance, you’ll never win.’ I’m living proof that regular people do win big. I spent $1 and won $1 million. How great is that?” Hupp said.
The Mega Millions game has been lucrative for Michigan Lottery players in 2015. This year, five winning tickets have matched the five white balls to win $1 million. One of those tickets featured the Megaplier option which increased the $1 million prize to $5 million.