Anchorage Daily News

When Colleen Cloutier first heard she may have won the Nenana Ice Classic last week, she jumped out of bed to check her entry.

"I thought I was running without my leg," said Cloutier, an amputee who wears a prosthesis.

On Thursday, after a long, drawn-out week, the self-described homebody learned she not only won, she won big.

In the 92-year-history of the popular Alaska lottery, in which participants guess to the minute when a tripod sitting on the Tanana River will move with the breaking ice, only once before has the jackpot gone to a single person.

This year's purse: $303,895, the largest ever.

Cloutier, 54, sat in her modest South Anchorage duplex and stroked her miniature schnauzer, Abby, hours after learning she was the only winner. She said she would be mostly sensible about the money. Pay off her house. Pay off her car.

She also might do something crazy. "But I'm not going to tell you about that," she said, letting out a small smile.

"Maybe we'll go to Italy," said her roommate and caregiver, Janet Jensen, who took turns petting Abby, who was not used to visitors.

Cloutier, a former greenhouse worker, commercial fisherman and Alaska Marine Highway employee, said she hasn't worked for almost a decade since nerve damage forced an amputation of her left leg. She spends most of her time at home, gardening or reading.

Cloutier bought four tickets this year, and picked May 6 randomly. And even though the tripod has very rarely gone out at night, she picked 10:53 p.m. because it was the minute she was born, she said.

A computer glitch kept organizers from confirming there was just one winner for more than a week. Workers had to double-check all of the 243,776 tickets by hand before announcing a winner.

Last week, after realizing one of her four tickets had the correct time, Cloutier called the game organizers.

"Is this for real?" she asked.

Every day since then, she has called back to ask, "Am I the only winner?"

"And, everyday, they said it would be tomorrow," she said.

Since 1975, when she moved to Alaska, Cloutier has bought several Ice Classic tickets. It's the only gambling she does, she said.

"It's just such an Alaskan thing to do. I do it because I love Alaska. And, I guess, this is Alaska saying it loves me back."

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