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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. —

Alex Waugh has never owned a cottage, but soon he will have two.

Waugh, who has a cottage being built in Long River, just learned he is the winner of the 2019 Dream Cottage – an annual fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of P.E.I.

He took some convincing to believe he was the winner of a spacious three-bedroom cottage with living room, dining room and kitchen.

“I thought it was a prank because I have a lot of jokesters that call me,’’ he says.

After voicing his doubt a few times, he finally believed the phone call Friday afternoon from Big Brothers Big Sisters executive director Myron Yates was legitimate.

“I feel wonderful,’’ he says.

“You don’t get a call like that every day. Feeling great.’’

Waugh, 44, of Wilmot Valley is quite familiar with the dream cottage. He put it together – and he put in on display in the Canadian Tire parking lot in Charlottetown.

He owns Waugh Scrap Metal with his brother, and part of his business is transporting mini-homes and, for the past four years, a dream cottage.

He has bought tickets the past four years, more to support the worthy organization than with any real hope of winning the big prize.

“I never thought there was a chance in the world I would win it,’’ he says.

Now, he is ready to enjoy the dream cottage with his wife, Tanya, and the couple’s children, Mac, 18, and Brewer, 13.

He just needs to figure out where to put it.

Yates says the fundraiser was a big success with all 15,200 available tickets sold out Tuesday, netting about $300,000 for the not-for-profit organization.

He says the money is put to great use helping to fund the Big Brother, Big Sister and Big Couple programs as well as in-school mentoring, teen mentoring and a couple of smaller programs.

“The 10 years I’ve been involved, we’ve seen some amazing matches,’’ he says.

Yates says the dream cottage was a “brave endeavour’’ when the fundraising initiative was launched 26 years ago.

Today, it is a much-anticipated annual fundraiser that seems to have plenty of legs.

Tickets have sold out each of the last two years.



At a glance:

Here are the past Dream Cottage winners. The winners are from P.E.I. unless stated otherwise and are listed starting from 2018 and going back in order to 1994.

Will and Marie MacPhail of Manitoba, Louise Coneen, Wendell MacNevin, Allan Arsenault, Ricky Farrell, Heather Birt, Garth Thompson, John Halman, Blair Zinck, Gordie MacEachern, Wave Platts, Kevin Mouflier, Darlene Oatway, Jacqueline Kirk of Ontario, Eileen Watts, Darlene MacDonald, Hugh Dubois of Nova Scotia, Stan MacPherson, Marilyn Tonary, Marion Driscoll, Judy Cobb, Joanne and Blair Smith, Elaine Sransky and Catherine Mooney, Sean Cox of Nova Scotia and Merrill Crosby.