Aldergrove man to share $24M win with daughters, donate to charity
Aldergrove lottery winner Ronald Cumiskey is going to be playing a lot of golf now that he’s $24 million richer.
As soon as he realized he had won, and before he was handed the cheque on Wednesday, he splurged on a new set of golf clubs and retired from his job.
The 60-year-old father plans to share his winnings with his daughters and donate some of his cash to Ronald McDonald House, which helped his family during a time of crisis.
He learned of his winning ticket from the May 27 Lotto
6/49 draw, worth $24,369,459, right before going to bed. He said, at an online news conference Wednesday, that he woke up and had to convince himself he was not dreaming.
He’s also going to buy a lakeside property on Vancouver Island so he can spend more time with his kids and grandkids.
“I checked it two, three, four times before it finally sank in,” he said. “It’s the dream you never think is going to come true.”
After telling his roommate and his girlfriend about his win, he called his boss of more than 20 years.
“I said ‘Frank — I’m retiring! You know that (lottery) winner in Aldergrove? That’s me!’ ”
Cumiskey says he wants to travel as soon as the COVID-19 restrictions lift but his first priority will be to help his family.
“I can make my daughters’ mortgages, bills, go away. They are not going to have the same stresses we went through. That is fantastic.”
I checked it two, three, four times before it finally sank in.”
Ron Cumiskey