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Dozens of festivals, fairs and fundraisers attended, alongside too many cues to call to count, led to more than 200 Golden Ticket winners joining us Thursday night in hopes of winning a share of thousands of dollars in prizes at the Morden Home Hardware Rockin Summer finale. Those grand prizes included a garden shed from Morden Home Hardware, a $1,000 gift card from Sawatzky's Furniture and Appliances and a $500 gas card from Petro Canada to fill your tank for one final Summer adventure.
It was a sunshine filled late afternoon, with temperatures pushing into the upper 20s, meaning the weather fit perfectly with the Rockin Summer theme. Cooling everyone down were our friends from Waypoint Coffee which were on site serving up both iced and hot beverages to the crowd.
New shed off to Carman
The winning reached its peak with a wave of excitement from the crowd when we pulled the name of Sheena Nakonechny from Carman as the winner of that garden shed valued at $8,000.
"My son spun the wheel at the Carman Fair, he was six years old and couldn't take the ticket or win it, so I wasn't quite with him and I went there and they're like you won a ticket," shared Nakonechny on how she secured her Golden Ticket to be part of the finale. "He (her son) said to me before I left the house, 'Mom, if you win that shed, it's mine. I spun the wheel."
Perhaps Sheena can share it with him, but then again, there's also the option of it being a She-Shed and just for her.
"It could be, definitely," she said with a smile. "I could put all of my things in there, and have a little quiet time. I have three boys at home."
A new sectional coming soon
Meanwhile, Cathy Cramer from Morden will be sprucing up her home with that $1,000 gift card from Sawatzky's Furniture and Appliances.
"I was a little bit shocked actually, and I'm very thankful," said Cathy on having her named pulled out Thursday night. "Thank you to you guys for putting this on and Swatzky's Furniture. I always like seeing the radio folks in person, because we always just hear you on the radio. There was such a great crowd here tonight, and the coffee was fantastic."
And what about that gift card?
"I'm thinking a new couch, probably a sectional," dreamed Cathy about what the gift card will be used for. "And send my old one off to university with my son."
One last Summer road trip
John Giesbrecht from Winkler was our final grand prize winner, and will be fueling up his vehicle for one final Summer vacation adventure with a $500 gift card from Petro Canada. His journey to being at the finale included, perhaps, some good luck from his daughter's birthday yesterday.
"It was our youngest daughter's birthday today, and I'd forgotten about the fact I won the golden ticket, and I was like can we make it work? Like I gotta go. I had this feeling."
And it certainly was a good feeling, because he went home with one the grand prizes.
"We'll have some fish fry after," he noted as a way to celebrate his daughter's birthday and the big win. And that gas card will be put to use right away, with the family planning on going to Gimil this weekend to the annual drag races, there.
And the winning didn't end there
Plus, we had four bonus prizes that every Golden ticket winner had a chance of winning. When our qualifiers arrived, they had the opportunity to pick which one they would like to play for, whether it be a LEGO Ferrari from Janzen's Hobbyland, a Lift Master Garage Door Opener from Winkler Overhead Doors, a Milwaukee Grinder & Battery Pack from Koolers Refrigeration or a $250 gift card courtesy Sun Valley Tire.
Thank you to all our Golden Tickets winners, our business partners and everyone we met over the last few months as we again joined together to enjoy the best of a Rockin Pembina Valley Summer.
- With files from Connie Bailey and Robyn Wiebe -
