Orange County Register

Curious to see who got lucky in the Ocean Institute’s 5th annual Laguna Beach million dollar home raffle?

Over the weekend, raffle tickets were drawn at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, marking the end of the fundraiser (which kicked off in early July) and awarding 150 people with various prizes.

Here are the big winners:

Courtesy of Jim Graves

Eric Gage of Valley Village, a Los Angeles community north of Studio City, was the grand prize winner but here’s the catch - he hasn’t decided what to choose yet.

Gage, who commutes to Orange County, said he received the phone call from Ocean Institute Executive Committee member Bill Steel around 2:30 Saturday afternoon. Gage says Steel joked with him, running through the list of top 10 prizes saying “How about a Prius? Well, you didn’t win a Prius,” and so on.

(Eric and Paige Gage are pictured celebrating right)

After a few minutes of teasing, Steel told the Gage family that they had won the grand prize.

“I was stunned,” Gage said. “My wife kind of burst into tears. It was kind of hard to believe for a while.”

Since Gage’s wife, Paige, is a tenured teacher for the L.A. school district, but Gage himself works in O.C., the family is still deciding what their best option is: the house in Laguna Beach or the cash.

“This was a big change,” he said.

So we’ll pose the question again:

STAY TUNED…We’ll update you when the Gage family makes their final decision.

Here are more winners…

• Cathryn Kostick of San Clemente - Dream Vacation or $10,000 cash
• Maryanne Ely of Corona del Mar - Dream Vacation or $10,000 cash
• Lorna Gibbs and Donald McKee of Laguna Beach – a signed Wyland painting or $5,000 cash
• Wayne Rayfield of Dana Point -$10,000 cash in the “refer a friend” drawing; the friend, Charles McClung of Laguna Beach, also wins $10,000 cash
• Hai Pham of Costa Mesa - 2010 Prius or $15,000 cash
• Sarika Bhakta of Anaheim - 3-day stay in New York City (surprise drawing for those in attendance provided by Winspire)

This annual fundraiser has raised $11 million since its inception. The next raffle will take place in 2010. CLICK HERE to learn more about the Ocean Institute and the raffle.

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