Big winners

ABRAM-VILLAGE - The excitement that comes from holding a million-dollar ticket was too much for Michel Gallant to contain.
When Agnes Arsenault a clerk at the CafÉ Plus in Wellington discovered the ticket Gallant was getting checked was worth $1,000,000 Thursday evening, she took him into a back room to break the news privately.
"After that she went to the CafÉ Plus. I was in the room alone and I hollered, 'yes!' and everybody knew," said Gallant who shares Wednesday's Atlantic 6-49 grand prize with his sister, Cecile.
They live with their mother in Abram-Village.
"It feels great now," Gallant said while en route back to P.E.I.. Brother and sister-in-law, Donald and Monique Gallant drove Michel and Cecile to Moncton to collect the prize money. After a dinner together at Cora's, they were returning to P.E.I. with the big cheque which they planned to deposit at the Evangeline Credit Union.
"Spend it wisely," he said, is what they will do with the money.
It was only the second time that Michel and his sister bought tickets together.
The winning ticket was purchased at the CafÉ Plus. Michel thought the ticket was one he purchased at another store in the area, but Atlantic Lottery Corporation was able to confirm the actual location by the terminal number.
By Friday afternoon Agnes Arsenault was finding the excitement overwhelming. On Thursday a lot of people were checking to see if their ticket was the winner and on Friday everyone was interested in the reaction after learning of the Gallants win. She's happy for the winners.
"Their family: I know a lot of them, most of them, and they are so nice," she commented.
The prize-winners come from a family of 12 brothers and four sisters.
When Arsenault entered Gallant's ticket in the computer, it made the happy sound, signaling a winning ticket, and a message immediately flashed on the screen advising her to call ALC. It was only when she started to dial the number that she noticed all the zeros. She put the phone down and took Michel into a back room to make the call.
Gallant, Arsenault said, still wanted to check another ticket after finding out he was the big winner. "I said, 'you need to go home.'"
But he went to Donald and Monique's instead. "Monique said, 'No, it's not true.' I said, 'Monique, here, look at the ticket. How much is it?'"
Then he phoned his brother Raymond in Alberta. By then, another brother, Leonard, had heard the news at the CafÉ Plus, and calls started flowing in both directions.
News soon spread.