VaxCash 2.0 Promo Nets $500K For Dundalk Mom Of 3, Plans To Buy A House

DUNDALK, MD — The first winner in Maryland's lottery drawings to promote more COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots is a grandmother who claimed $500,000.

The 71-year-old from Dundalk won the $500,000 VaxCash 2.0 prize. She popped by lottery headquarters in Baltimore Feb. 23 to claim her winnings, the first of 12 to be awarded in a second round of incentives designed to encourage people to get vaccinated.

One weekly prize will be given out for 12 straight weeks. The first drawing was Feb. 15 for $500,000. In weeks two through 11, winners will gather $50,000. The week 12 winner will get $1 million.

The winner used the nickname Mi Familia and said she received a call from the Maryland Department of Health informing her she had won. She didn't believe it until she walked into the lottery winner's circle.

“I didn’t believe it was real, until today,” the winner told lottery officials.

When asked why she chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster, she said she wanted protection from the virus.

“My mom convinced many of our family members to get the vaccine, too,” the winner’s daughter said in a news release. “She believes it is so important.”

The mother of three plans to use her winnings to buy her dream house.

“My mother is superwoman,” the winner’s daughter said. “She spent her life raising my siblings and me. This is her much-deserved compensation.”

Maryland residents 18 and older who have received their primary COVID-19 vaccinations and their booster shot in Maryland at any time are eligible to win one of the lottery drawings. No registration or entry is needed.

Related: MD COVID: Hogan Announces $2M In Booster Shot Lottery Prizes