Milestone · $100 Million
From $100,000 to $100 million.
Five years after a pandemic-era pivot, the Thunder Bay 50/50 has crossed a milestone nobody saw coming — and become the largest monthly hospital lottery in Canadian history.
From $100,000 to $100 Million.
When the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation launched its first 50/50 draw on January 13, 2021, staff quietly hoped to hit $100,000. They thought that would be a good day.
This month, the Thunder Bay 50/50 crossed $100 million in prizes awarded.
The pandemic forced the Foundation to reinvent how it raised money for the Hospital. Motorcycle rides, golf tournaments, theme dinners — all gone overnight. So in early 2021, the team launched a simple online 50/50 draw with a guaranteed minimum of $5,000. Nobody quite knew what to expect.
"It was our pivot moment. Cancer, heart attacks, disease — none of these stopped just because COVID started. We needed to find a way to continue supporting our Hospital."
Glenn Craig · President & CEO, TBRHSF
That first Grand Prize came just short of a million dollars. By December 2021, David Kamande of Thunder Bay became the draw's first multi-millionaire with a $2.34 million win. By December 2022, the Pace family of Thunder Bay took home $2.5 million. And in September 2023, Norman Barratt of Ignace marked the beginning of an unbroken streak: every Grand Prize winner since — 32 consecutive months and counting — has taken home at least a million dollars.
Then December 2024 changed the conversation entirely. Natalie and Clem Bigras of Hanmer won $6.4 million, and the story went national. National Post coverage drove more ticket sales, and the prizes climbed higher still. One year later, in December 2025, Patrick Chilton of Timmins and Moose Factory won $7,720,930 — the largest monthly 50/50 prize in Canadian history.
Along the way, the Foundation opened a permanent Thunder Bay 50/50 Store at Intercity Shopping Centre, partnered with the Humane Society to help 44 pets find forever homes, and produced grand prize winners in 31 communities across Ontario.
Now, with $100 million awarded, the draw has done something the team could never have imagined when they set that modest first-month goal.
The full story
From a pandemic pivot to a Canadian record — read every chapter.
Read the Thunder Bay 50/50 story → Five years of impact
Thunder Bay 50/50 by the numbers
$100M+
Awarded in prizes since launch in 2021
64
Monthly grand prize draws since launch
$7.72M
Largest monthly Grand Prize
(Canadian record · Dec 2025)
(Canadian record · Dec 2025)
870+
Total winners — grand prize
and early bird combined
and early bird combined
36
Grand prizes of $1 million or more
15
Grand prizes of $2 million or more
31
Communities across Ontario with a grand prize winner
32 mo
Consecutive months with a $1M+ Grand Prize
None of this happens without ticket buyers. Every ticket helps the Foundation Do More Faster — funding the highest-priority equipment at the Hospital and clinical centres across Northwestern Ontario.
