Before her winning ticket was drawn, the mother, Shelly McBride, turned to 18-year-old Amanda Eben and congratulated her for coming in second.

“I was maybe just being a smart aleck,” said McBride, who won the Homer Chamber of Commerce’s eighth annual raffle Nov. 3. “Maybe I was just feeling lucky at that point.”

McBride said she was on cloud nine for a few days after winning and couldn’t decide between the two prizes. She, her husband John, and children Dakota Tennison and Dylan McBride already had a vacation planned for later this month.

“I think we’re going to take the money and run,” she said. “What a way to make it the vacation of a lifetime.”

McBride’s ticket — one of four the family bought — was picked from a pool of 500 tickets.

“It was the last one that we purchased that was the winner, and we got it the day before the raffle,” she said.

Chamber Executive Director Derotha Ferraro said she can’t remember the final two winners ever being in the room when the raffle came down to their names.

“We really had to stop the show and remind everyone that the next ticket determined everything,” Ferraro said. “That was very unique.”

Chamber employee Linda Broadhead said the two grew more and more excited as the choices dwindled to them.

“They were hanging onto each other until it was picked,” she said.

Eben won $499 for having the next-to-last ticket. She remembered the event becoming exciting as the number of tickets dwindled to two, hers and McBride’s.

“It was pretty crazy. I didn’t expect to get as far as I did,” Eben said.

It was the first time Eben had bought a ticket for the annual raffle, and said she plans to use the money to get snow tires.

Beth Ann VanSandt won $1,000 for selling the winning ticket to McBride.