Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

INUVIK (May 25/98) - An Inuvik woman has won a million dollars playing Lotto 6/49.

Maureen Keevik, 47, won the jackpot in Wednesday night's draw after buying $10 worth of quick-pick tickets at Inuvik's Rexall Drugs earlier that day.

She showed up at the drugstore Thursday morning to double-check the numbers and when her win was confirmed, ran through the store hugging employees and customers, shouting, "I just won a million dollars! I just won a million dollars."

Ecstatic employees also started hugging each other and Keevik as the store filled with a party-like atmosphere.

"I can't believe it," Keevik said in the moments after drugstore staff validated the ticket, her hands shaking. "I can't believe I just won a million dollars."

Keevik, a mother of five and grandmother of three, plays the lottery faithfully and said she plans to pay off the house she and her husband, Rod, live in. She's also planning to take her family to Nova Scotia this summer to visit her mother-in-law.

Until Thursday morning, she worked at Beckett Business Services.

"I started there a couple of weeks ago," said Keevik. "I think I'll give them until Friday."

It is the largest jackpot ever won in Inuvik. The most money won in the town prior to Keevik's jackpot was $25,000 on a scratch-and-win ticket about five years ago.