Boonville woman wins $100,000 in Easter Seals sweepstakes | News

Karen Wilson of Boonville won the grand prize at today's final "key ceremony" for the 2011 Easter Seals Home Run Sweeps.  The winner has one week to choose either the grand prize house built by Eagle Construction and valued at $164,600 OR the alternate grand prize of $100,000.  After today’s drawing, Wilson indicated that she plans to take the $100,000 cash prize option.

The $10,000 second prize was won by Robert Rothschild of Evansville. 

The $5,000 third prize was won by Scott Smithler of Newburgh. 

The remaining 2 finalists won $1,000 each.  They were Adam Oakley of Chandler, IN and Laya Phelps of Evansville.     

A total of 2,422 Sweeps raffle tickets were sold for $100 each from May 2 through July 21 at noon, when five finalists were selected in a random drawing. 

Before the ceremony, attendees heard from Easter Seals Child Representative Sophie Weinzapfel, 8, and her mother Julie Weinzapfel of Mt. Vernon.  They described how Easter Seals audiology and speech therapy services have made a difference for Sophie, who was born with a severe/profound hearing loss.

93.5 The Wolf’s Tommy Mason conducted the noon key ceremony at the grand prize home in Evansville’s Creekside Meadows subdivision, as the finalists chose keys at random and then attempted to open boxes representing the raffle prizes. 

The Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center anticipates net proceeds of approximately $123,000 from this year’s Home Run Sweeps raffle.  Those proceeds will underwrite physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions for local individuals with disabilities who couldn’t otherwise afford these life-changing services.  This year's amount brings the 20-year total raised by the Sweeps to approximately $2.37 million.