NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tonya and Sarah Maerker have never entered raffles because they expected to win.
For them, it has always been about helping someone else.
Watch full report from Austin Pollack
“My whole life, my mom and I have done raffles,” Sarah said. “It has always just been a tradition in our family to help anyone that we can, when we can.”
Last season, that family tradition gave back to them.
Tonya and Sarah were gifted tickets to the Tennessee Titans’ game against the Seattle Seahawks. At the stadium, they came across the Titans’ 50/50 raffle.
This time, Tonya kept walking.
“So I was like, ‘Mom, what is happening? We always do them,’” Sarah recalled.
“I did notice it and walked past it,” Tonya said.
Eventually, they bought a ticket.
“We always hope to win the raffle, but we don’t really do it for the purpose of winning,” Sarah said. “We do it for the purpose of helping other people.”
They had no idea how much that decision would soon mean.
For Sarah, now a high school sophomore and a first-year cheerleader, football has long meant more than the game itself.
Her love of it can be traced back to her father, Greg.
“From when I was very little, my dad had always put on football on the TV, and so I’ve always seen the cheerleaders,” Sarah said.
Greg died in 2017.
“Some days are harder than others when it comes to grieving him,” Sarah said.
Football remains one way she keeps those memories close.
“It always reminds me of my dad when I see football because he was the biggest football person in my family that I remember,” she said.
Greg served in the military. Tonya did, too, serving from 2004 to 2012.
But losing Sarah’s dad would not be the family's only difficult chapter.
In November 2022, Tonya was diagnosed with breast cancer.
For Sarah, the diagnosis brought the fear of losing another parent.
“It was really scary knowing that I had already lost my dad and then thinking that I could wake up and maybe not [have] my mom one day,” Sarah said.
Tonya knew what the diagnosis meant for her daughter, too.
“That was heartbreaking to not only have to tell her that, but to navigate that as a single mom with a child who has already lost a parent was very difficult,” Tonya said.
Tonya went through chemotherapy and multiple surgeries. She says she is now doing well.
“To see her walk and live life now is just truly amazing,” Tonya said of watching Sarah. “And I know that I am blessed to be here today to see her do it.”
Mother and daughter have turned their attention toward making more of those good memories together.
And then came the phone call about the raffle ticket they had nearly skipped.
“We didn’t think about it again until we got the phone call,” Tonya said.
Her ticket had won the Tennessee Titans Foundation 50/50 raffle.
The timing carried even more significance for the family. Tonya, a civil service employee, had gone without a paycheck during the government shutdown and said the family had been spending conservatively because they did not know when she would be paid again. That's why she had originally almost walked by the raffle booth.
The raffle proceeds were split, with the charitable portion benefiting nonprofits through the Titans Foundation and the remaining share going to Tonya and Sarah.
But Tonya says the win represented so much more.
“Winning the raffle at that time just helped kind of reinforce that, you know, this is a new chapter of our life,” she said. “And we’re trying to have happy memories and live life.”
Proceeds from this year’s raffle will benefit Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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