MALAD, Idaho — When you think of a field trip, you normally think of heading to a museum or a monument — not going across the state border for lottery tickets.
But one group of determined Utahns did exactly that on Friday.
Residents of Lotus Park Assisted Living and Memory Centers took a road trip with high hopes, wondering if there will be a Powerball pot of gold at the end.
The hour-plus trek north from Salt Lake City to Idaho isn’t something most Utahns do very often. But when the prize is over $1 billion, this group packs up and heads out with a mission to get paid.
“They've worked hard their whole life, so now they can play hard," said Bree Payne, the resident care director at Lotus Park. "These residents are, you know, living the dream."
Lotus Park employees thought of the idea thanks to the dreams of their residents.
“If a resident has a dream to go win, you know, the lottery, win a million bucks, wants to go do something with some money, yeah, we're going to make that happen,” said executive director Kayden Grenko. “We load up the residents in the van and we take those that want to go, and we fulfill dreams.”
The last time they did this in July, they posted a video of the trip on TikTok with many people commenting about how they loved the idea.
And Friday after the field trip north, this crew was ready once again.
“They're really cute. They want to give back, they want to contribute to something, they want to make the world a better place," Grenko said.
“Most of them, they don't even care about themselves. It's more about helping other people, so that's what's so great about our residents," Payne echoed.
Of course, the staff got in on the fun as well — saying they might as well take advantage of being in Idaho and spending some cash with the hopes of winning it all.
Grenko said these field trips are especially important after a rough few years of COVID-19.
“I don't think there's anything in my memory that's been more heartbreaking than shutting them indoors and watching them isolated," he said.
Despite the low chance of winning, Grenko was optimistic.
“Odds are, definitely,” he joked.
