Local

Winners of first VaxMillions lottery drawing announced today

BOSTON — The two winners of the state’s first VaxMillions drawing were announced Thursday morning.

The first being Darrell Washington 63 years old of Weymouth, who works as a case worker for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

When asked about entering the lottery he said “It was rather important for me to actually do this, to get the vaccination.”

“Ask yourself is your child, is your spouse, if you grandparents, are they worth you getting the vaccination. That risk seems to be very, very easy for me to resolve and I think you will too.”

Washington spoke about how he plans to spend the money...

“I didn’t say I was going to spend it, but I’ll be doing good things with it. Definitely,” Washington says.

Daniela Maldonado, 15 years old of Chelsea is the recipient of the $300,000 college student scholarship. When asked about her school plans she talked about her passion of learning History of different countries, and math. Her colleges of choice are UMASS and Boston University.

“Now I’m able to achieve goals that I’ve wanted to do but would have not been able to do if I did not have this scholarship.”

“We are a low-income family so it was going to be hard for me to go continue my education,” said Maldonado.

Governor Baker smiled as he spoke about the Mass. VaxMillions program.

“Since we launched VaxMillions, over 2.3 million residents have signed up and hundreds of thousands of residents have gotten vaccinated, building on Massachusetts’ nation-leading success in protecting our residents. Massachusetts continues to out-perform virtually every state on vaccinations, and we look forward to the remaining drawings for the VaxMillions campaign as another way to encourage more residents to get vaccinated, in addition to innovative approaches like pop-up clinics and in-home vaccinations,” said Baker.

“Today’s winners are a great reminder of why it’s so important to get vaccinated. They won, but we all win too,” said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg. “And remember - they got a shot because they got the shots. So get the vax now and you could join us soon!”

Thursday also marks the last day to sign up for the next million-dollar prize.

Drawings will be held every Monday through the end of August.

College scholarships are also being offered to anyone ages 12 to 17 years old.


This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW