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Erin Byrnes, 13, of Fairmount, won this 2015 Chevy Tahoe LTZ in the Joseph's House raffle. She immediately donated the truck back to the charity.
(provided photo)
Syracuse, N.Y. -- At 8:20 p.m. last Thursday, 13-year-old Erin Byrnes won a
car worth nearly $70,000.
By 8:21 p.m., she had given it away.
Without a thought to what she and her family of eight could do with the money or the completely loaded, brand-new Chevrolet Tahoe, Byrnes marched up to the stage at Drumlins in Syracuse, took her winning raffle ticket, and handed it right to Joseph's House, a nonprofit home for mothers and their children, said her mother, Jeanie Byrnes.
That was the girl's plan from the start. And all along, the grown-ups smiled and said, "That's nice, dear," the way they do when something is both kind-hearted and unlikely.
Byrnes, an eighth-grader at West Genesee Middle School, took $200 she raised collecting cans and bottles this summer and bought 60 tickets for the annual Joseph's House car raffle. That's 60 tickets out of 26,000.
The raffle and gala are a major fundraiser for the Syracuse home that offers mothers and pregnant women a place where they can live, raise their children and get parenting help. The goal of the home is to prevent abortions by giving women and children a safe place to live.
Because Erin wasn't technically old enough to win the prize (you have to be 18), she wrote her last name down on the tickets. Her parents agreed that the choice about what to do with the winnings was Erin's.
"We never dreamed in a million years that Erin would win," Jeanie Byrnes said. The family runs a business, Byrnes Chem-Dry. They have two kids out of college, two kids in college and two more to put through college. They might have liked a big new SUV: Her husband, Bill, drives a 2008 Honda Civic.
They were at the gala for Joseph's House where the drawing took place because Erin was getting a leadership award for her work volunteering there and raising money for the home.
Erin Byrnes has been volunteering at Joseph's House with her mother every Thursday. She helps take care of the babies and do chores around the rambling house where the women and children live.
Erin Byrnes holds a baby at a gala for Joseph's House Sept. 24. Byrnes won a $70,000 car and donated it back to the charity.
One day Erin, who loves horseback riding and everything Irish, overheard her mother and some other women talking about the need to raise more money for the house, Jeanie Byrnes said. Her daughter wanted to help, too, and began collecting cans and bottles at her mother's suggestion.
Last week, as the Rev. Richard Prior reached in to pull out the winning ticket, Erin told her mother to cross her fingers.
The emcee was Todd Caputo, the owner of Sun Chevrolet. (He and an anonymous donor donated the Tahoe.) As Caputo read out "Byrnes" and their phone number off the ticket, Erin's dad, Bill Byrnes, lifted her up onto his shoulders so she could see. Then he set her down and she walked up, alone, to the stage.
Byrnes told the crowd she wanted to give the ticket back. Caputo and the crowd were stunned, said Jeanie Byrnes. Caputo had the girl repeat herself, louder, into the microphone.
Kitty Spinelli, one of the women who runs Joseph's House, said they are still figuring out how to make the most of Erin Byrnes' gift.
And now, that gift given, Erin Byrnes is working on the next. The teen wants to raise more money to buy Christmas presents for the moms at Joseph's House, her mother said.
At barely 13, Erin is the baby of her family. Her favorite time is when her older brothers and sisters come home from college and their jobs for a family dinner.
But the teen hasn't failed to notice that the Joseph's House mothers' lives revolve around filling basic needs -- the things many others take for granted. Erin Byrnes told her mother she'd like to put something under their tree that's not needed or expected this winter.
"She wants to get something for the moms that they want, not just need," Jeanie Byrnes said.
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