Sarnia men win Dream Home

Heather Wright/The Independent

Robert McLean hardly knew what to say when Kathy Alexander of the Bluewater Health Foundation called his cellphone.

“Do you remember buying a dream home ticket?” she asked.

“That was a long time ago,” he said.

“We have a ticket number here with your name attached to it, as well as Samuel and Edward, and you’re the winners of this year’s dream home lottery,” Alexander said.

“No way!” the obviously shocked McLean said.

“Way!” Alexander said laughing. “This is 100 per cent real, Robert.”

McLean and Edward McLean and Samuel McLam’s names were on the winning ticket drawn Thursday morning. It was a Christmas gift. McLean told Alexander he’d bought Dream Home Lottery tickets for years.

Another happy ticket holder is Danny Flynn of Sarnia who won the $279,000 50/50 draw.

See a full list of the winning tickets here: https://tickets.bwhfdreamhome.com/winners

While Mark Braet didn’t win, the chair of the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital Foundation, was also smiling. For the last couple of years, CEEH Foundation has partnered with Bluewater Health Foundation on the Dream Home lottery. The foundations split the proceeds 50/50.

“We believe the number in total is over $600,000. So it’ll be a significant investment towards our project,” Braet said.

Bluewater Health is working on a 25 year plan to renovate the hospital in Petrolia. “We’re out for engineering drawings for the project, and we’ll be able to go for tender, hopefully before the end of the year, and then start to do the work in 2026,” Braet said. The CEEH Foundation has committed to raising more than $3 million for this phase of the project – the ER and radiology.

Braet says there have been a number of significant donations to the project already, and the foundation will launch a major campaign likely in 2026.