A Collingwood woman was bowled over to find out she had won a cruise around the world.
In fact, it took her a few minutes to remember she had even entered the contest.
Lola Honsberger is the winner of this year’s Bowling Night in Canada national contest grand prize: a cruise for two around the world.
“It took me a couple days to figure out it was real,” said Honsberger. “It was a good job I was sitting down.”
Honsberger returned to bowling three years ago after a 25-year hiatus from it. She joined the Tuesday night mixed league and received a Bowling Night in Canada ballot on the last league night of the season.
Lee Hanley, co-owner of Georgian Bowl, signed up to participate in this year’s draw after learning about it at a convention last year. She had to pay to participate, and when she packed up the ballots for the year to mail away, she thought no more about it. Then she got a call telling her a bowler from her centre won the grand prize.
“I was thrilled for two reasons, number one that it was someone from my centre, and number two, Lola is absolutely adorable and she deserves to win," said Hanley.
Honsberger has lived in Collingwood for 39 years. She has worked at McDonald's for 29 years and hasn’t had a vacation in 25 years.
She did opt to take the cash ($5,000) instead of the cruise, but she said she’s putting the money away in her account and she’ll use it to take a trip with her daughter. She hasn’t planned a destination and said she’d rather do it “spur of the moment.”
“Good things like this just don’t happen to me,” she said.
Bowling Night in Canada is a national campaign to encourage more bowling on Sunday nights. Ballots for the draws are earned based on hours spent bowling.
In previous years, the Bowling Night in Canada gave away a trip for two across Canada on Via Rail, a trip for two to Paris and a trip for two to Australia.
League nights start up at Georgian Bowl in September. Lanes currently open at noon every day and at 10 a.m. on Saturdays. There’s a youth drop-in bowl at 3 p.m. on Sundays.
