NE Iowa Woman Wins Top Prize In Lottery's "Million Dollar $ummer" Promo
Susie Blazek of Delhi Claims $1 Million Prize
To download image, right click on image, then navigate to 'Save Picture As' to save this file to your computer. To download digital audio files of this story, right click here, then navigate to "Save Target As" to save this file to your computer.
CLIVE, Iowa - A northeast Iowa woman has some quickly approaching plans after winning the $1 million top prize in the Iowa Lottery's "Million Dollar $ummer" promotion.
"I plan on retiring on Oct. 8," Susie Blazek of Delhi said as she claimed her prize Tuesday afternoon at lottery headquarters in Clive. "And then we want to do some traveling. But most of all, I want to be very careful. I want this to be something I can depend on for the rest of my life."
Blazek, 57, said she entered around 15 tickets in the lottery's summer promotion, which began in mid-July and offered 13 prizes ranging from $5,000 up to $1 million. Iowa Lottery players could enter non-winning tickets into the promotion, and the lottery held the promotion drawing on Aug. 26. One of Blazek's entries was selected as the grand-prize winner.
Blazek said she was at a local pizza restaurant that evening when she got a call from a friend who said she'd seen Susie's name as the $1 million winner on the Iowa Lottery's website. Blazek said she was so flustered, she asked the waitress at the restaurant to log onto the lottery's website and see what it said.
"And she looked, and she said, 'Susie, it's true,'" Blazek said. "And then the tears kind of came because I saw how much it was. And then you just kind of go into shock. You can't believe it."
Blazek said everyone in the restaurant clapped for her after hearing the news and then she stepped outside to call her boyfriend and three adult sons.
"I said probably a million things," she recalled with a laugh.
Blazek, who works at a bank, said her lottery win has allowed her to move up her retirement plans by several years. But her first plans after claiming her prize were for a celebratory steak dinner with family and friends.
"We're going to enjoy this," she said.
Return to top↑