Spokane nursing student wins $250K in state's 'Shot of a Lifetime' lottery

A Spokane woman has won $250,000 prize as part of the state’s "Shot of a Lifetime" lottery.

The winner—Marissa P.—was selected from the June 22 drawing, Gov. Jay Inslee's announced during a press briefing Thursday. Marissa is a nursing student who recently completed her pre-requisites as a pre-nursing student at Washington State University. 

RELATED: State selects 256 more winners in vaccine lottery

"As you can probably imagine, I was shocked when I got the call from the Lottery and even more shocked when they told me that I’d won the $250,000 prize. I’m still amazed that it’s real and feel very blessed," Melissa said in a statement. "I’m grateful to the State, to Governor Inslee, to the Department of Health and to the Lottery for creating this program, and for helping make sure as many people as possible get their COVID-19 vaccination. As a pre-nursing student, I am deeply concerned about the health and wellbeing of all people, and I strongly encourage everyone who hasn’t yet taken the time to get their shots to please do so. These vaccines help protect you and others, and getting ourselves vaccinated will ultimately help our entire community."

Out of 256 prizes in this weeks’s drawing, 139 have been awarded to Washington residents including the $250K cash prize, one set of two round-trip Alaska Airlines travel vouches, 47 Microsoft X-boxes, and many more. Six out of 15 youth prizes have been claimed this week. 

RELATED: 'A Heroes Thanks:' New vaccine lottery announced for military in Washington

The incentive program, called "Shot of a Lifetime," ends June 30 and applies to those who start the vaccination process this month as well as residents who are already vaccinated.

The state Lottery will hold two drawings a week for four weeks, one for adults 18 and older and another for those age 12-17. The lottery cash prize will start out with a weekly prize of $250,000 through the end of June. On July 13, a final $1 million drawing will be held.

Like the Lottery cash prizes, winners for the other prizes will also be decided each Tuesday. Winners, selected from the Department of Health’s immunization database, will be contacted based on the contact information they provided when they got vaccinated. Lottery Director Marcus Glasper said that winners will be contacted after the drawing and will have 72 hours to respond to claim their prize. If they do not respond, they will move on to other presumptive winners, he said.

More information about the lottery and eligibility available here.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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