DAWSON - Friendship pays; $100,000 to be exact.
Every morning for the past three years, Phil Elias of Dawson and Sam Guariglia of Vanderbilt have met at Elias' business, Phil's Nite Club in Dawson, to walk their dogs and read newspapers.
Guariglia, an avid Powerball player, convinced Elias to try his luck last month.
Elias has done very well, winning $7 the first time he played, $8 the second and $100,000 on Feb. 22.
"Sam is the reason I won," Elias says. "We meet here at the club every morning. I never play the Lotto. Never. One day, he brings his tickets in and the following week he brings me a blank Powerball ticket. I asked him how he picked his numbers."
"I play the numbers of my teammates on the Dunbar High School football team," says Guariglia. "I was halfback, number 10. The other guys' numbers I play are 5, 16, 17, 14 and 37." Guariglia has been playing Powerball since it arrived in Pennsylvania last summer, but has never won a large amount.
He remains hopeful. "I always play. You never hit unless you play."
Beating the nearly 3 million to 1 odds, Elias was one of five Pennsylvanians to choose five correct numbers Feb. 22, according to Sally Danyluk, Pennsylvania Lottery spokeswoman. A player in Louisiana and a player in Missouri split that day's $42 million jackpot.
Elias played the same numbers he played all month: 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 25. He missed the jackpot by one digit. The Powerball number was 26.
"I used submarine numbers and family birthdays," Elias says. "My old submarine was 602. I picked the 2; another sub was 599. I picked the 5. My dad's, mother's and brother's birthdays are all under 10, giving me the 6, 9 and 10. For the Powerball, I combined 2 and 5. I missed the $42 million by one.
"Sam laughed at me for picking such low numbers. He said that so many low numbers would never win. Jokingly, I told Sam that the balls with the lower numbers must be lighter and have to float up. I gave him five bucks and he bought the tickets at the Dairy Store."
Elias did not watch the drawing.
Guariglia did. "I felt good when I found out. The next morning when I came into Phil's, I told him, 'I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, you missed millions. The good news is, you won $100,000.'"
Elias will receive his check in about a month. "I'm making a large donation to my church, St. George Maronite Catholic in Uniontown. I don't yet know what I'll do with the rest," he says.
Elizabeth Newell, who owns Dawson's Dairy Store with her husband, Donald, is proud of the win. "We get a lot of people playing Powerball, but once they find out a winning ticket came from our store, more people will play. It will be good for everybody."
Elias and Guariglia will keep playing at the Dairy Store.
Guariglia has made a Powerball convert. Elias says, "We'll keep playing with the same numbers. They'll come up again and Sam's will come up. I've always been lucky with the order of things."
