ATHABASCA – A young Athabasca-area farmer, who also works as a power engineer, became Alberta’s newest millionaire June 15 after winning Servus Credit Union’s Big Share Contest.
Levi Ryl, 27, won the fifth-annual contest which enters account holders into a draw for $1,000,000 for every $500 that they save — the contest is designed to promote good saving habits and financial literacy.
“To be honest with you, I was in a little bit of disbelief,” said Ryl during a June 15 interview as he was driving back from the ceremony which had been held in Edmonton. “I got the official word about it May 28, but until someone had sat me down and told me straight, I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
Ryl, who works at Al-Pac as a power engineer, says that he isn’t planning on doing anything crazy with his winnings and doesn’t have any “big purchases lined up.”
“I still need to sit down with some financial people and figure it out,” said Ryl, who has a greenfeed/hay/grain farm to the east of town he works with his father and uncle. “I’m already in the mood that I want to make this money work for me and put it to good use. I’ll pay off some debt, and I’ll invest a good chunk of it. I’m still pretty young, so the investments will have a good amount of time to grow and pay me back.”
While he was able to keep the news to himself and “tried to keep it out of my mind and not focus on it” he did let his folks in on the life-changing news. Ryl was joined by his parents Donald and Rhonda and his sisters Emily and Sarah van Maurik at the cheque-presentation event.
“My dad was in the middle of working the night shift, so I called my mom. She was definitely very excited, and I told her to go wake my dad up, since I knew he was going to want to hear it, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to wait to tell him until he gets up,” he said. “His first response was, ‘I know I’m on nights but am I still dreaming? Is this real?’ Neither of them really believed it.”
