It’s no joke: Amboy Depot Days winner a hometown man

AMBOY – When the phone call came Sunday afternoon, Jim Mezo Jr., who was on the couch watching a little TV, was pretty sure it was all a big joke, his buddies’ way of getting him down to the bar to have a drink.

Another phone call from a cousin, followed by a sprint downtown and a run-in with organizer Hank Gerdes confirmed it: The Mezos now were thousandaires, 99 times over.

Jim and his wife, Kourtnee, and their nearly 11-month-old daughter Joni Kay, are the winners of the coveted Amboy Depot Days 50/50 raffle, this year worth $99,460.

“I am super surprised that I won it,” Mezo said. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

The money couldn’t come at a better time. The couple just closed the deal on a new home in Amboy about a week ago, and a good chunk of their winnings will go into the new house – and to Joni’s college fund, of course, Mezo said.

He and Kourtnee were strolling through the Depot Days crowd Saturday when they realized neither had bought a raffle ticket yet. “I said, ‘Well, I guess we’d better’,” Mezo said, and he dropped a Jackson on 24 tickets.

And won 4,973 times his investment.

Don’t get any ideas, though. Between the house and the kid and all the new friends and relatives he’s developed in the last 24 hours, Jim’s investing days probably are over.

Jim works for Starved Rock Wood Products in Mendota, and Kourtnee for Sinnissippi Centers in Dixon.

The Mezos weren’t the only winners Sunday: Five other folks – Matt Winters, Carry Ginns, Ryan Harrington, Kevin Jordan and David Jaminson, according to the Depot Days 50/50 Raffle Facebook page – won $2,000 each, money that comes from the organizers’ share of the proceeds.

The rest of the money will be spread out among local nonprofits, including the Amboy Depot Museum, local food pantries, the town’s Teen Turf center, the schools and local Girl Scouts, among others.

Last year’s pot, won by Tim Hord of Dixon, was a little fatter, $105,580. (The first drawing was held in 2001, when organizers raised a total of $8,400.)

The year before, COVID-19 knocked out the four-day festival, which includes a carnival, craft show, beer garden, live music, and tons of other all-around Midwestern food and fun, and typically attracts about 40,000 people to this Lee County village of about 2,500.