When the call came, Katelyn Larson didn’t answer.
“I get a lot of spam calls,” she said with a laugh.
She was at a fall market at a friend’s house, distracted by the bustle of vendors and conversation, when an unfamiliar number flashed on her phone. Minutes later, a voicemail notification appeared — one of those half-transcribed previews that rarely make sense.
“I thought it was just announcing the winner,” she said. “Then I looked again and realized, no – that’s the voicemail. I listened to it, and it said, ‘Congratulations, you won.’”
Larson, 28, of Chanhassen, had just won the Wings of the North Airplane Sweepstakes, an annual drawing that gives one lucky entrant the choice between a classic airplane – in this case, a 1950 Aeronca Champion – or $30,000 in cash.
She didn’t believe it at first.
“I called John back,” she said, referring to Wings of the North board member John Bormes, who drew the winning ticket during the Sept. 27 pancake breakfast at Flying Cloud Airport. “He told me it was true. That’s when it started to sink in.”
Larson, who runs her own small-business consulting firm and has a travel blog, bought three tickets after spotting the raffle at the Wings of the North AirFair this summer.
“I live just a couple miles from Flying Cloud Airport,” she said. “I’ve been to the air show many times – my parents love planes, so we grew up going to air shows regularly.”
Her decision to enter was more spiritual than strategic.
“A few weeks after the show, I was doing a devotional and praying about some financial goals,” Larson said. “I told God, ‘I don’t know how you’ll show up, but I know you will.’ Then that picture of the plane popped into my head. I figured, why not? At the very least, it supports a good cause.”
She forgot all about it until that voicemail.
Larson is not a pilot – though her boyfriend, his father and her uncle all are – and after talking it over with them, she chose the cash.
“They said, ‘If you’re not going to fly it, take the money,’” she said. “It just made sense.”
Still, she couldn’t resist sitting in the Aeronca when she came to the museum.
“She jumped in the car with a friend and came right over,” said Wings of the North Museum Director Bob Jasperson, a longtime volunteer, former board president and current museum director. “She only bought three tickets and ended up winning. There were people who bought many more and were understandably disappointed.”
The museum drew entries from all 50 states this year and served about 150 people at its pancake breakfast, Jasperson said.
The Wings of the North, an all-volunteer aviation nonprofit based at Flying Cloud Airport, uses its annual sweepstakes as its largest fundraiser. Proceeds support its Minnesota-themed aviation museum and education programs, as well as efforts to fund a permanent museum at the airport.
This marked the sixth annual Airplane Sweepstakes, and as in past years, those who didn’t win will have another chance.
“Everyone who entered this year but didn’t win will have another shot at the 1950 Aeronca in the 2026 sweepstakes, which is scheduled to start in February,” Jasperson said. “The airplane will remain on display at the Wings of the North Air Museum.”
For Larson, the win felt like a small miracle – a moment of faith meeting luck.
“It’s never been a dream of mine to fly,” she said. “I love to travel and I love airplanes, but I’m happy taking pictures from the ground.”
