Tracy and Dan Crumbaugh are all smiles Saturday night, March 15, after winning the grand prize at the Project Graduation Luck of the Irish dinner and raffle. (Eric Crump/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

Marshall High School Principal Carol Smith wondered why no one hooted or hollered after the second-place winner was announced at the Project Graduation Luck of the Irish dinner and raffle Saturday, March 15.

There was only one ticket left. It was worth $10,000.

But the holders of the ticket, Dan and Tracy Crumbaugh hesitated because they thought their ticket might have been lost in a small hitch in the proceedings earlier.

When announcer Dana Sanchez read their ticket number aloud, then they hooted. And hollered.

And came to the front of the MHS gym to accept a check from Scott Hartwig, a member of the Marshall Public Education Foundation.

"At first, I thought they'd lost our ticket," Dan said. Apparently a slight discrepancy in the number of ticket numbers checked off on the overhead projector screen caused the uncertainty.

So were they surprised?

"Oh yeah," Tracy said. "Wow! We just want to thank everybody."

Dan said the couple have not won a big prize like this before and don't even buy lottery tickets except very rarely.

They came to their first Luck of the Irish dinner last year when their son, Brett, was a freshman.

Brett, now a sophomore, is active in FFA.

"We want to support Project Graduation" while their son is attending MHS, they said.

They didn't have to think long about what they will do with the prize money.

"Ten percent to the church and then pay bills," Tracy said.

John Rector was the winner of the second-place prize of $500.

Contact Eric Crump at marshalleditor@socket.net