Virgil home a Princess Margaret lottery prize

An instant millionaire will be taking possession of a brand new house in Virgil in November. 

Located on a corner lot in the new Vines of Niagara development off Concession 4, 18 Annmarie Drive will be awarded to one lucky winner in the annual Princess Margaret Home Lottery. Unless you’ve already purchased a ticket, though, you are out of luck. The lottery sold out prior to its early bird deadline.

This year’s NOTL prize follows one that was awarded last year in Prince Edward County. Ramona Oss, vice-president of Lotteries with the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, says offering a prize in Niagara-on-the-Lake is part of an ongoing effort to surprise and delight the foundation’s supporters. 

“We like to bring our supporters a diverse geographical offering,” Oss says. “We couldn’t think of a better place, or a better way to do that, than a show home in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The wineries, the bike trails, golf courses, and the Shaw Festival. It’s perfect.”

The prize home has been built by Woodcastle Homes, the developer behind the entire subdivision being constructed on Paradise Grove. 

“You don’t just get the home, it comes completely furnished and decorated,” says Oss. “They really did a wonderful job of bringing in elements of wine country. He (Woodcastle project manager Bruce Cromie) has these beautiful wine barrel tops as wall decor. And there’s a master retreat with a home office, which is perfect for these (COVID-19) times.”

The 2,063 square foot home with two bedrooms and two bathrooms also features 16-foot cathedral ceilings in the kitchen, dining and family rooms. The finishings include engineered white oak hardwood floors throughout, a three-sided contemporary glass fireplace with a TV niche, gold accented plumbing fixtures, a frameless glass shower, wood and glass railings, and a beautiful composite deck in the backyard. The gas barbecue comes with the house, as does an extra $35,000 in cash to take the total prize value up to the million dollar mark.

The grand prize in this year’s Princess Margaret Home Lottery is valued at $6 million, including a 7,500 square foot house in Oakville, a Porsche Taycan 4S to go in the garage, and $1 million in cash. There is also a modern, 3,000 square foot house valued at $2.7 million up for grabs, and a condo worth $1 million, both in Toronto. More prizes, including cars and vacations, can be seen on princessmargaretlotto.com.

The lottery is a major fundraiser for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, located on University Avenue in Toronto. “Over 25 years,” says Oss, “the program has raised over $400 million. Our goal for this year is bigger than last year. For 2019, the lottery delivered over $40 million. It’s a really important program for our researchers. We wouldn’t be able to call ourselves one of the top five cancer research centres in the world without our lottery program.”

Oss adds that the funds from the Home Lottery are considered undesignated, meaning that they are not earmarked for one specific application. “The lottery fuels innovation,” she says, “and it funds programs like immunotherapy and our clinical trials, which are key to discovering novel new therapies that change the outcomes not only for Ontarians but also for Canadians and cancer patients around the world. This year’s proceeds will go to our top priorities.”

The hospital sees about 18,000 new patients each year, and some of them are, of course, from the Niagara area. In fact, on the Princess Margaret website, you can read about a young mother from Pelham, Laura Montgomery, who credits her diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and her subsequent treatment at the cancer centre for keeping her alive today.

“The type of cancer centre we are,” says Oss, “we treat some of the most complicated cancers. The breadth and the scope of our work is borderless. Undoubtedly, there would be a number of people, unfortunately, from Niagara-on-the-Lake, who would be referred to Princess Margaret every year.”

Oss is not surprised the 550,000 tickets are already sold out. “Certainly this pandemic has shown all of us the importance of health care and research. I would say that people are right now especially keen to support health care. Even though we are in the middle of a pandemic, they realize that cancer does not go away.”

Due to the pandemic, she adds, none of the show homes at stake for the lottery, including the one in NOTL, are open this fall for viewing. Grand prize and 50-50 winners will be announced live on CP24’s Breakfast Show on Oct. 22. A full list of winners will be published on the lottery website a week later.