On a hot Friday afternoon in July, the Idaho Lottery marked its 35th Anniversary at The Village in Meridian. The celebration came with all the accoutrements one might expect like balloons, cakes, presents, prizes, and live music from local favorite, The Diamond Empire Band!

Center stage was the second chance Cake Final, where five finalists, who entered their non-winning 35th Anniversary Scratch tickets on the Lottery’s VIP Club, were selected to dive into cakes searching for a small tube with their prize inside. Every finalist was assured of winning at least $1,000. After frantically tearing through their cakes and decimating their four tier masterpieces, Evan Crawford from Nampa was the last to find his prize but ended up the biggest winner. He claimed $10,000 for his efforts!

Evan plans to use his winnings to pay off two car loans and then play a few more Scratch tickets.

There was a cake decorating contest won by Carina Lopez who made her 35th Anniversary-themed cake in five minutes to claim a $100 gift card from Fred Meyer. Cakes for the contest were donated by Fred Meyer.

And Jeremy Welden won the Scratch-off contest with the slimmest of margins to claim $100 in 35th Anniversary Scratch tickets.

Hundreds of people braved the extreme heat to participate, buying tickets at the Lottery booth and catching the Idaho Lottery deliver a record $84 million to the People of Idaho and Governor Brad Little.

Here’s to the first 35 years and to the next 35 years ahead!