“I can only attribute it to Grace”: Raffle winner of purple BMW has emotional connection to grand prize

BOSTON – A Rhode Island mother of five is the winner of the Big Sister Boston car raffle. She is shocked, thrilled and she believes the car is heaven sent.

“Are you kidding me? I thought someone was pranking me because my kids like love to mess with me,” Tara Reddington said. “My brain just couldn’t catch up to what you were saying.”

Winning the BMW 230i was understandably overwhelming. Big Sister Boston sold 1951 raffle tickets. Tara bought just one, in memory of her daughter Grace, whose favorite color was purple.

“I have just been nagging at her constantly, send me a sign, send me a sign,” Tara said.

“So, when I saw this Facebook thing with the tickets, I thought, a purple car? that’s unique. And I saw that the drawing was on her birthday. I was like, OK Grace, I’ll bite. I’ll play along.”

And then she forgot about it until WBZ-TV’s Lisa Hughes called on behalf of Big Sister Boston. A grand prize winner on what would have been Grace’s 18th birthday.

“To see all those tickets rumbling around in that barrel and imagine that my name got picked is just mind blowing,” Tara said. “And I can only attribute it to Grace being like mom, here I am.”

Purple is Big Sister Boston’s signature color and the color for Rett syndrome, the neurological condition that affects mostly girls that took Grace’s life at 14.

She couldn’t speak when she died, but Tara says this message is loud and clear.

“Big Sister just got a Big Sister,” Tara said. “They just got a Big Sister in Grace.”

This is the first time in the 34-year history of the car raffle that Big Sister Boston raffled off a purple car.

Tara has a choice; she can keep the car or take $40,000 in cash. She says she believes Grace has made the choice for her.

Over the years, Big Sister Boston has raised about $2 million to support mentoring relationships between women and girls in Greater Boston.