MONTREAL -- Six women collectively won $50 million in a lottery draw on Tuesday.
The group of colleagues, which includes the principal and vice-principal of a Monteregie school, bought their ticket on a whim, they said, after seeing the size of the jackpot--which they later won.
They claimed their prize money on Friday.
"At first when I saw the winning ticket I'm like 'ok so we won $50 million?'" said one of the winners, Sandra Notargiovanni. "That's a lot of money, and yeah, it's surreal."
Notargiovanni, who is a daycare educator, said she had written a $1 million cheque to herself years ago after she read The Secret--a self-help book that promotes visualization as a means to achieve life-goals.
"I guess maybe it's life's way of saying: 'visualize' and, I don't know, it'll happen if you believe in it," she said. She plans to buy a big house for her family, travel and "give back" with the money.
The winners are Dominique Desroches, Lyne Gendron, Josee Lareau, Christine Lavoie, Francine Levesque Boily and Sandra Notargiovanni.
On Friday, they "celebrated their epic win--and talked about how they're planning a girl's night out," Loto Quebec's press release read.
The Depanneur where the ticket was sold will receive a one per cent commission of $500,000, Loto-Quebec said on Friday.
The agency has paid out 79 prizes of $1 million or more since the start of 2019. With files from CTV Montreal's Scott Prouse
