COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) – Governor Mike DeWine introduced Ohio’s newest Vax-a-Million winners in a press conference Thursday.
Mayfield High senior Zoie Vincent, who has plans to be a pediatrician, won the scholarship prize.
Jonathan Carlyle works at Amazon in Toledo. He and his girlfriend have three boys, one is just 5-months-old.
Wednesday night, after a long shift at work, he saw he had a voicemail and a missed call from Governor DeWine.
“I was fairly certain I won but I wanted to hear your voice,” Carlyle said at the press conference.
“I pretty much almost lost it inside the van.” Carlyle hadn’t even gotten home from work.
“I was overcome,” he shared.
He and his girlfriend plan to continue working.
They’ll use the money for something everyone wants in life.
“Me and my family we find our forever, permanent home for the future,” he said.
“I can’t explain how much pressure this is going to take off to help raise him right,” Carlyle said of his baby boy.
He said he got the Johnson & Johnson shot shortly after the Vax-a-Million contest was announced.
He said he had been meaning to get vaccinated but had a hard time with a busy work schedule.
Carlyle said they lost a family member due to coronavirus.
“My sister and her husband who live in California at the time came down with Covid, as well as his father who passed from COVID.”
Winner Zoie actually tested positive for coronavirus.
“It was the most sick I’ve ever been,” she shared. It was also a reason she said she was vaccinated.
“My family won’t have to feel this way again.”
The pandemic didn’t have any effect on her plans in the field of medicine.
“I’ve been interested in medicine and science for as long as I can remember,” Zoie said.
Her mother told FOX 8 she had been worried about how she was going to pay for school.
“I felt like a weight off my shoulders because I could see my career ahead of me.”
She is hoping to attend Case Western University or The Ohio State University.
The next winners will be announced June 9.
If you have registered, there’s no need to sign up again. If you haven’t, the deadline to get your first vaccine is 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
You can register here or call 1-833-4-ASK-ODH.
Still need the shot? Find a place near you here.
