“When Linda Willis of Centreville first scratched off the $5 Ravens Cash Fantasy lottery ticket she bought at Stevensville Citgo, she thought she had won $10. She waited until she returned to where the school bus she drives was being serviced before scratching the ticket and still was not sure. She called her son Billy and asked him to come look at the ticket. That is the way daughter Laura Aaron recounted the series of events leading up to her mother becoming the first in Maryland to win the Ravens Cash Fantasy top prize of $1-million.

Laura and brother Billy went to Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore last week to collect the $1-million check on behalf of their mother and their father Donald Willis, the owners of Willis Tire and Auto in Stevensville. “”She didn’t want all the hoopla, so she sent Billy and me up here because she knows we’re big Ravens fans,”” Laura said in an interview from lottery headquarters. “”She didn’t believe it. She hasn’t slept in four days,”” Laura said of her mother’s reaction to winning the grand prize. Asked how the rest of the family has been handling its new-found wealth, Laura said “”pretty much the same. Until we got here. It was pretty much unbelievable.””

Nadeem Javed, owner of Stevensville Citgo, was excited that he had sold the winning ticket. He said he was “”very happy”” for Willis and said “”it’s great, it’s nice”” to have a winner in Queen Anne’s County. Javed said after he learned that there was a winning ticket in the community, he checked with his lottery agent and learned that a $1-million ticket had, indeed, been sold at his Duke Street service station.

Carole Everett, director of communications for the Maryland Lottery, confirmed that this is the first $1-million ticket sold since the game began August 10. She said ticket sales statewide have been “”terrific.””

Laura Aaron said her family saw the new game advertised in Ocean City this summer and has been playing it off and on since then. Her mother had not been playing it on a regular basis when she decided to buy the ticket that turned out to be the winner. “”She was between her kindergarten and high school run and she stopped at the Citgo and bought another little scratch-off and she asked the man if it was a winner and he said yes, $10. So she said I’ll take a mega-millions and a Ravens ticket,”” Laura recounted.

Donald and Linda Willis own Willis Tire and Auto, and Billy Willis now runs it, Laura said. All the family members also drive school buses in Queen Anne’s County. She explained that her mother and father will “”get the majority”” of the winnings, but that the rest of the family will share in them.
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