It was brains, not luck, that put $25,000 in Bonnie Kotapish’s hands.

But she feels pretty lucky to get it at a time when she and her family need it the most.

The La Grange Park woman walked away with the bucks in August as a contestant of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” the game show where contestants answer questions on a wide variety of topics.

The show aired at 5 p.m. Oct. 10 on WGN Channel 9. Kotapish was accompanied by her family in August to New York for the taping of the show, a big hit in her household.

“We watch it all the time,” she said. “My daughter and I like game shows. My daughter was sick for a while, and we kind of got into a rhythm. We’re big fans.”

It began in August 2007 when Kotapish was convinced by her family to attend tryouts at Medieval Times in Schaumburg. She earned an interview based on her scores from a 30-question, 10-minute test on general topics. A few weeks later, she received word she would be entered in a contestants’ pool.

“In July, we were at my daughter Kathy’s house at Southern Illinois University when they called me,” she said. “My reaction was, I put my hand on my mouth. My daughter thought there was something wrong. Then she saw me put a smile on my face behind my hand. She goes, ‘No way,’ and she saw me make a dollar sign in the air.”

The family, including husband, Ed, and two of their three daughters, Kathy and Lauryn, then made their travel arrangements for the taping in New York City.

“At first I said ‘I really don’t want to tell anyone in case I really stink,’” Kotapish said. “I make a fool out of myself so many times, what’s once more? Anyone who knows me knows I don’t care; anyone who doesn’t know me, what do I care?”

After a trial in the studio, it was time for the real deal.

“Then you get in the hot seat and all bets are off,” she said.

Kotapish used her lifeline, actor/radio personality Jay Thomas, on the $25,000 question regarding a Supreme Court decision on gun owners rights in Washington, D.C., and correctly answered the question.

She was stopped at the $50,000 question, when she incorrectly identified Mexico instead of Australia as experiencing a gold rush in the 1800s.
In the end, she walked away with $25,000.

“It was fun, and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I could,” she said. “But it was surreal, too. When I came home, someone asked me what was the very first question. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember.”

The family has had a string of bad luck with serious illness, she said, and she quit her full-time job to care for those in need.

“Because of that, we kind of got in debt,” she said. “This was a nice little boost. It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Ed Kotapish said the family’s luck seemed to take a turn for the better the day they received the call in Southern Illinois.

“Just as we were opening the door to come back up to La Grange Park, the phone rang and it was ‘Millionaire,’” he said. “It was supposed to rain all the way home, but it was sunny the whole way. We didn’t have a cloud in the sky. It was like an omen. All the way through, it seemed like someone was watching out for us.”