After weeks of waiting and plenty of secondary prizes, a Sarnia resident has won the multi-million dollar ‘Catch the Ace’ jackpot. Ashley Norton was stunned as he was shown his winning ticket in the ‘Catch the Ace Lottery’ Thursday night. It is worth $4.5 million. That includes the weekly prize of more than $200,000, and the $4.3 million jackpot he collected by correctly finding the ace behind envelope 31. While Norton declined an interview with CTV News, he told organizers he was watching a live stream as his ticket was pulled. “He knew we were calling. But it was still like a sense of total shock and disbelief,” said Ron Realesmith, the president of Sarnia Branch #62 of the Royal Canadian Legion. But the power of the ‘Ace’ spreads beyond the winner. All those who waited in long lines for tickets can take solace in knowing half the pot is going back to the community. Local charities are expected to receive an estimated $3 million of it, said past-president Les Jones. “It’s amazing the support we have. And we’re so happy to be able to fulfill one of our pillars, which is to assist our community and be able to give this money back to charity,” Jones said. Like many legions, the Sarnia branch was struggling to survive before ‘Catch the Ace’ began. Now it is on the other side with plans to upgrade facilities with its share. “Because we’ve saved this place basically with the Catch-the-Ace. It’s fantastic!’ said Cathy McBride, the volunteer chair of the lottery. Catch-the-Ace will continue this fall, with Lambton residents now able to get tickets at any local legion branch – not just in Sarnia. As for Norton, there is no word on whether he’ll play again, but it’s fair to say he has plenty of new friends, said Realesmith, “I jokingly called him this morning, and said, ‘Hey, you and I don’t know each other, but I’m your long-lost brother,’ and I think he had a good laugh at that. I’m sure he’s going to get lots of those calls.”
