Freeport woman wins $15K in Gannett Fall Home Makeover Sweepstakes
It wasn't long ago when Deanna Penick of Freeport was questioning why she enters so many online contests.
"I thought, 'Why do you keep playing? You never win nothing.'"
Now she has 15,000 reasons to keep entering contests.
Penick is Gannett's national grand prize winner of $15,000 in the Fall Home Makeover Sweepstakes.
A giant check was presented to her Tuesday at Window World of Rockford, the local sweepstakes sponsor. A real check will be delivered this week.
More: Machesney Park woman wins $15K in Gannett's Spring Home Makeover Sweepstakes
As for possible home makeover ideas, Penick said: "I'm so excited. We need guttering. I got a big giant tree that needs to come down, and we need a fireplace chimney repaired."
A total of $25,000 in cash prizes was given away to three winners as part of the fall edition of the contest held nationwide in over 300 participating markets. The contest ran from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31. Participants could enter once a day.
In addition to the grand prize winner, two second place winners, Aaron Burke of East Lansing, Michigan, and Heather Reid of Adrian, Michigan, each won $5,000. Winners were randomly selected from hundreds of thousands of entries.
Danielle Ellis of Machesney Park, was the spring grand prize winner.
The fact that two grand prize winners hail from the Rockford area "just goes to show people still go online and read the paper," said Linda Bressler, an account executive at LocaliQ.
Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Freeport woman claims Fall Home Makeover Sweepstakes grand prize
