Jul 11, 2026
Leo Bruce was a cute baby — so cute, in fact, that his cuteness indirectly covered his tuition to attend college in Canada. And it’s “one of [his] favorite family stories” to tell, he shared with CTV News.
Leo’s mother, Sharon, admitted that she and her husband, Matt, “had a cute baby.” And it was made abundantly obvious when they visited Edmonton, Canada and attended a Women’s World Cup baseball game in 2004.
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Two women seated behind them, Lorraine Stevenson and Georgina George, noticed Leo — and also couldn’t get over “the cutest little baby with chubby cheeks,” they recalled to Global News, which made the connection to reunite the once-strangers in 2022.
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Stevenson and George were so enamoured with Leo, in fact, that they bought the baby three 50/50 raffle tickets, one of which ended up being a winner.
The gift that kept on giving
While Matt recalled trying to “give the money back,” Stevenson and George insisted that the winning money was for Leo, just nine months old at the time.
“Hey, it’s only money,” George told Global News.
But Stevenson and George did give the Bruce’s one condition: “They said, ‘Use it towards his education,’” Leo said.
The Bruce’s agreed to put the undisclosed amount of money towards college, bought beers to celebrate and snapped pictures with Leo, his new friends and his winnings.
“It was awesome,” Lorraine told CTV News. “It was a very good day!”
Sharon and Matt went on to invest Leo’s winnings and, as the years passed, that investment compounded. By the time Leo graduated from high school, it had already grown enough to pay for part of his tuition.
Leo decided that he wanted to express his gratitude by returning to Canada to attend the University of British Columbia, where he studies kinesiology and hopes to, one day, become a chiropractor.
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A kind gesture that went a long way
While college tuition costs are generally much lower for domestic students in Canada, on average, university still costs about $42,000 per year for international undergraduate students, according to EduCanada.
In the U.S., the average cost of college in the U.S. has more than doubled in the 21st century. The average cost of in-state tuition in the U.S. is $9,750, while out-of-state tuition averages $28,386, according to the Education Data Initiative. Meanwhile, the average private, nonprofit university student living on campus pays roughly $59,000, $38,000 of which goes toward tuition and fees alone.
It’s no wonder why student loan debt sits at $1.83 trillion, with nearly 43.8 million student borrowers grappling with federal loan debt. The average federal student loan debt balance is $39,547 — and, when you factor in private loan debt, that figure climbs as high as $43,333.
For Leo, even a small amount of money compounded over, say, 18 years — from the time he was just a few months old to the time he left for college — could have led to significant gains.
But it wasn’t only about the money for Leo.
“It was super appreciated, and here I am, almost done at UBC,” Leo said. “Twenty-some years later, instead of just being a raffle ticket, it’s a human connection that we have.”
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AnnaMarie is a weekend editor for Moneywise.
