FARMINGTON – Mark Lopez said he’d be asking for one of those cards McDonald’s Restaurant offers to coaches and bus drivers from now on. He won a $500 gift certificate to a sporting goods store to benefit athletes at Mount Abram High School in Salem Township.

Lopez, wearing a blue tie with Coach Lopez and a Roadrunner for the team name, said Thursday he is a junior varsity coach of soccer and basketball at the school. He filled out a card this fall when the soccer team stopped at McDonald’s in Farmington.

He learned last week he was a winner.

The $500 gift certificate is to Turner Sporting Goods in Bangor.

Lopez is the first winner at the Farmington store, Manager Terry Chretien said.

There are 63 McDonald’s in the Maine Co-Op and Eastern New Hampshire region of owner and operators, Chretien said.

She gave Lopez the certificate Thursday.

“It’s pretty awesome to have someone in the community win,” Chretien said.

Lopez said he’d leave it up to SAD 58 athletic director to decide how the certificate would be used.

With the budget crunches in recent years, Lopez said, there are a lot of areas the certificate could benefit.

Uniforms are one area, Lopez said.

The teams are on a rotation system to get new uniforms, he added.

The junior varsity basketball team uniforms are more than 7 years old, he said.

Lopez of the Kingfield area, is also a Maine State Police detective who works out of the Franklin County District Attorney Office in Farmington.

It was the first time he was offered the card at a McDonald’s, Lopez said.

So he filled it out.

If he isn’t offered one the next time the bus stops at a McDonald’s, he said, he’ll be asking for a card.

“It’s awesome,” he said of winning.