The grand prize Shop St. Joseph winning ticket number 0363520 has been claimed.
A check presentation will be at 9 a.m. at Sears in the East Hills Shopping Center.
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The Dec. 21 winning number for the Shop St. Joseph Holiday Program is:
0363520
The shopper with the winning ticket has 24 hours to come forward to claim the $10,000 prize. Shoppers are urged to keep their tickets because if the winner hasn’t come forward by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 22, another number will be announced. This process will continue at 5 p.m. until a winner comes forward with the correct ticket. Exclusions include Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
“This is the first time in the history of our program that a winning ticket wasn’t brought forward on the first day,” said Natalie Redmond, Vice President of Membership for the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. “This is why it’s so important to keep and check your tickets. You never know when someone else might miss their opportunity to win $10,000 because they didn’t keep their tickets.”
Merchants distributed more than 1.2 million tickets this year.
“It makes sense that not all of those tickets will be checked when the announcement is made,” Redmond said. “We have been fortunate in years past to always have been able to award the grand prize right away.”
The winner MUST call the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce at (816) 232-4461 during business hours or (816) 261-3610 after business hours to arrange a time to verify the ticket. He or she MUST come to the Chamber office at 3003 Frederick Ave. before 5 p.m. Thursday to claim the prize. The person with the winning ticket should come to the Chamber to have the ticket verified, not a member of the media. Media members cannot verify a winning ticket.
The winner must be 18 or older. Proof of age, Social Security number, home address and place of employment (if applicable) is required to claim the prize. Chamber of Commerce staff, Chamber officers and their immediate family members (dependents living at the same address) are not eligible to win the grand prize. Participating business owners, managers and employees are eligible to win, with the exception of tickets distributed through their own place of business (including other participating locations).
The winner will be responsible for any applicable taxes.
One winning number per each second-chance prize were also drawn. Those numbers will be announced after the grand prize ticket has been verified.
Two certified public accountants worked with Chamber staff to provide oversight of the program. Roughly 1.2 million tickets were distributed this year through the 110 participating merchants. This is up from 96 merchants in 2015.
This is the 10th year for the local holiday shopping program. The program’s goal is to keep holiday spending in the local economy, so sales tax collected goes back into helping St. Joseph and Buchanan County projects.