SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio — For the second week in row, a Northeast Ohio student won the four-year college scholarship in the Ohio Vax-a-Million drawing.
Sara Afaneh—Lorain County
While Sara Afaneh, a soon-to-be 8th-grader from Sheffield Lake in Lorain County, is about to turn 14. While she hasn't thought much about her college plans, she was still excited to find out she was the latest winner of the scholarship.
Sara shared her excitement with her mother, who took the video call from DeWine Wednesday.
“It was very exciting. Surreal for sure,” her mother Summer said.
The scholarship money will help ease the cost of covering college for Sara's three other siblings.
"What helps us and helps her definitely is going to help my 17-year-old. So that's how we're looking at it. We're just we feel so lucky and so blessed that we won," Summer said.
The family received their vaccines at Fairview Hospital as soon as the vaccines were available to those 12 and up.
"We’re so lucky that we were able to access the vaccine. And it was a seamless process," Summer said.
Her passion to get her family vaccinated is rooted in the year-long fight against the pandemic working as a nurse and seeing her father battle the coronavirus.
“I’ve seen the damage that COVID-19 has done in all settings of healthcare.” It was a no-brainer. As soon as they were eligible, we signed up, and we took them in."
Mark Cline—Richwood in Union County
Mark Cline was the third winner of the Vax-a-Million drawing. As a retiree from Marathon Petroleum, he called the $1 million "extra icing on the top of my life."
When he received the call from DeWine about winning the $1 million, he joked to his wife that she wouldn’t get any because she didn’t register for the drawing for reasons that included not wanting her name to be publicly broadcasted and the attention from the media.
"And I was really excited. And I thought about it a second and I said, no, I want a million dollars because you didn't register. So she kind of had to take that one little bit. But in reality, my money and her money," he laughed.
He and his wife received the shot at the same in March and urged all Ohioans who to get it if they can.
"I hope everyone makes that decision to get it and, you know, looks after their friends and neighbor," Cline said.
The next drawing
The entry period for the next Ohio Vax-a-Million drawing ends June 13 at 11:59: p.m.
The Vax-a-Million program, which is being run by the Ohio Lottery and the Ohio Department of Health, is awarding one vaccinated adult Ohio resident with $1 million each Wednesday for the next five weeks. The names of the winners will be announced live on-air during a special Ohio Lottery broadcast on News 5 Cleveland at 7:29 p.m. each Wednesday.
'Whirlwind': Shaker Heights native reacts to winning $1 million in Ohio Vax-a-Million lottery
Visit our Vaccinating Ohio page for the latest updates on Ohio's vaccination program, including links to sign up for a vaccine appointment, a map of nearby vaccination sites, a detailed breakdown of the state's current vaccine phase, and continuing local coverage of COVID-19 vaccines in Northeast Ohio.
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