Roll up the Rim is helping two Salmon Arm teens pay for university next year.
Rosa Saba and Alicen Ricard, both 18, were the lucky winners of a 2013 RAV4 in a Tim Hortons coffee cup contest in March, but they’re not keeping it.
Toyota is buying back the vehicle, valued at $36,000, and the girls are splitting the money down the middle. Both will use the cash to pay for university.
“It was easy to decide to sell it. We’re both students and we both really need money for school,” said Saba. “This happened a week after I found out I was going to school in Ottawa and I was worried about paying for plane tickets and rent.”
Saba said she and Ricard got through high school by patronizing Tim Hortons. One day when she was short a dollar for a coffee, Ricard helped her out.
She said the cup ended up on her bedroom floor and when she found it several days later, she rolled up the rim of the winning cup.
“It was really hard to believe,” said Saba. “It just said ‘Win/Gagner RAV4,’ that’s it. It’s weird how easy it is to spend three bucks and all of a sudden you have a car.”
On June 27 representatives from Hilltop Toyota and Tim Hortons presented Saba and Ricard with the vehicle at the downtown Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons regional marketing manager Jeremy King, downtown Tim Hortons owner Kelly Moores and Hilltop Toyota sales manager Curtis Andreas congratulated the girls.
Their only ride in their prize was driving it back to the dealership.
Saba and Ricard get around town on the bus, on foot and on their bikes and said they don’t need the car. What they need is money for university.
“This is going to help pay for our tuition so it was a lot of pressure off and just overall really exciting,” Ricard said.
Ricard attends Okanagan College in Salmon Arm and hopes to attend a larger university in the future. Saba will be attending Carleton University in Ottawa for her first year starting in September.
This is the third RAV4 to be won in B.C. and the 37th in Canada. The chances of winning are one in 6.5 million.