ROGUE RIVER, Ore., April 12 /PRNewswire/ — Jacqueline Powell is used to seeing her champion show dogs steal the spotlight — but this time she’s “”top dog”” in the house.
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. said today that the Rogue River, Ore., woman has won its 2001 Cash Sweepstakes Prize, one of four major awards totaling $1.74 million announced by the company this month. Good for $150,000, Jacqueline’s lucky entry will buy a lot of puppy chow for her prize-winning Labradors.
“”When the post office called to say I had a special letter from Reader’s Digest, I was busy cooking corned beef for a VFW dinner,”” recalls Powell, 65. “”I thought, ‘It’s probably no biggie,’ but my curiosity finally got the better of me. When I went down and opened it, I was floored. I just had to sit there in the car for 15 minutes.””
Jacqueline has lived in the southwest Oregon town since 1991, when she and her late husband Gene moved from California to breed dogs, raise a little livestock and just plain relax on a five-acre spread.
Although she studied veterinary science in college, Jacqueline spent her 40-year career as an office worker and unemployment-benefits adjudicator. But raising and showing top-quality canines — shepherds, malamutes and now Labs — has always been in her blood. “”And now that I have some extra time and money, I’d also like to breed assist dogs for the disabled, and do some work for Labrador Rescue, to help save unwanted animals.””
Her Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes prize also means Jacqueline can “”pay my bills and replace my 10-year-old car — maybe even redecorate the kitchen.”” Her only regret is that her husband of 14 years, who passed away in 1999, isn’t there to share her good fortune. Right now Jacqueline is busy typing up hundreds of pages of essays Gene wrote on life, love and other musings; she hopes someday to see them in print. And if you listen very carefully, you might just hear the bagpipes Gene was so fond of playing and teaching. “”He never took a dime for lessons; he felt whatever he gave he got back tenfold,”” Jacqueline says. “”He was really a very wonderful, very talented man.””
Educating Consumers
“”You don’t have to buy anything to enter our U.S. Sweepstakes, and “”No”” entries absolutely have the same chance of winning as entries with orders,”” emphasized Donna Pierpont, Associate Director, Corporate Communications, The Reader’s Digest Association.
Over 4 million entrants have now won prizes totaling more than $250 million worldwide since the Reader’s Digest Association pioneered direct-mail sweepstakes in 1962. In the U.S., Reader’s Digest has awarded $189 million to over 2 million winners, with $7 million going to Oregon households. The Beaver State is on a roll, in fact, with a Waldport couple winning $500,000 just last fall.
“”It’s nice to know I can leave something for my stepchildren,”” said Powell. But lucky as she is, Jacqueline isn’t the first family member to make a name for herself — her sister is Elizabeth Hoffman, the actress perhaps best known as Sela Ward’s mom on the TV series “”Sisters.””
Reader’s Digest runs numerous sweepstakes and contests throughout the year, with varying prizes; several can be entered at the company’s web site, rd.com. The company this month announced four major awards totaling $1.74 million, including a $1 million winner in Tennessee and a $490,000 recipient in Florida. More big winners will be announced in September.
Reader’s Digest awards every prize offered in its sweepstakes, and publishes names of all winners. For a list, call 1-800-234-9000 or write to: Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes Winners List, Dept. 99, P.O. Box 262, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570-7000. All winners are selected at random by Donnelley Marketing, an independent judging firm, with the final drawing audited by the KPMG LLP accounting firm.
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. is a global publisher and direct marketer of products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and all cultures around the world. Its flagship publication, Reader’s Digest magazine, is sold in more than 60 countries and is published in 19 languages. Worldwide revenues were $2.6 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000. Global headquarters are located in Pleasantville, New York.
SOURCE: Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
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