Incredulous Iowan wins trip to NYC for New Year's Eve First Millionaire drawing
Packing on Wednesday for her New York City trip, Chris Manuel still though someone must be messing with her.
Manuel, 60, of the Marion County town of Swan, is one of 29 nationwide finalists for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year drawing. The winner will be announced Saturday night during ABC's broadcast of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023."
Manuel said she was driving home from work Thursday when she got a call from someone at the Iowa Lottery telling her she had won the drawing to be a contestant.
“I am excited. I still think I’m being punked,” Manuel told the lottery.
Iowa's and 28 other state lotteries that offer the Powerball game are sending winners on all-expenses paid trips to New York. To enter the value-added game, Powerball players in September and October joined the free Powerball VIP Club online and then scanned and uploaded images of their Powerball tickets.
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On Oct. 13, the Iowa Lottery drew 20 winners of $2,500 prizes. Manuel won the New York trip, which includes airfare, three hotel nights, meals, theater tickets, tours, $1,000 in spending money and a spot at a Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop party ― not to mention the entry in the $1 million drawing. The Iowa Lottery said the package is valued at $28,000.
Manuel works as a locksmith and had been going through cancer surgery and radiation treatments this year.
“Hopefully in February, I will find out I’m cancer free,” she told the lottery.
Meanwhile, the small-town resident (Swan has a population of 76) plans to make the most of her time in the Big Apple.
More:Who is Iowa's biggest lottery winner? View our database of largest prizes in Iowa history
"I'm looking forward to the double-decker bus and see(ing) everything in New York," she said. "My husband and I both want to go to the 911 Memorial and go on a speedboat cruise. You go past the Statue of Liberty and Long Island and see the different building sites from the Hudson River."
This is not the first time Manuel has been a winner. A few years back, she won half a cow at the Iowa State Fair. She donated some of the meat to the Helping Hands food pantry in nearby Knoxville.
Manuel and husband Randy describe themselves as “camouflage-and-blue-jeans” types, but she’s gotten a manicure with dark, sparkly polish for their trip and they both went clothes shopping in preparation, she told the lottery.
She will find out around 7:30 p.m. Iowa time Saturday if she is one of the top five finalists for the $1 million drawing.
If she win, she said, she hopes to retire early and travel with her husband to California to see the ocean.
”Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon," she said. "Just explore America, a couple light trips here and there."
Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter at@NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowan to be in New York City for New Year's Eve $1 million drawing
