Weymouth Man And Chelsea Student Are 1st Winners Of Vaxmillions

WEYMOUTH, MA — After getting their COVID-19 vaccines earlier this year, two lucky Massachusetts residents received life-changing news Thursday.

Gov. Charlie Baker held a press conference Thursday to announce the first-ever winners of the Massachusetts COVID-19 vaccination lottery called Vaxmillions.

Darrell Washington of Weymouth won the initial $1 million prize, and 15-year-old high school student Daniela Maldonado from Chelsea won a $300,000 scholarship to her choice of college.

Five people 18 and older have a chance of winning $1 million, and 5 people ages 12-17 have a shot of winning a college scholarship.

Massachusetts created the lottery to efforts to encourage more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

So far, more than two million Massachusetts residents have signed up.

More drawings will be held the next four Mondays and the winners will be announced on the following Thursday.

Winners have 24 hours to respond when the Department of Public Health reaches out, and if the winner does not respond, they will forfeit the prize and a new winner will be chosen.

Both Washington and Maldonado said in a press conference that they both thought the phone call was a scam originally.

Maldonado says this is a complete surprise, “We are a low-income family, so it was going to be hard for me to go continue my education,” said Maldonado, who noted that she’s interested in world history and math.

You can still register and sign up for the last four drawings here.