Sommer Maynor and her husband, Ryan, were sitting on their couch in their Bradley County home when they learned they'd won a new 3195-square-foot, five bedroom house in Ooltewah.
"He laughed and I cried," Mrs. Maynor said about the couple's reaction to winning a new house in St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Dream Home Giveaway Fundraiser.
Mrs. Maynor, who works as an office manager at a pediatric dentist's office, said she had told her husband and her mother that she would win the prize ever since buying one of the $100 raffle tickets.
"You buy the ticket just thinking it's a donation to St. Jude's," said Mr. Maynor, a lineman and general foreman with an electrical contractor in Chattanooga. "You don't think about winning, or at least I didn't."
Megan Emmert, a spokeswoman for the Nashville-based hospital, said 6,765 tickets were sold and about 200 people showed up at the house for the drawing at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Builder Win Pratt of Pratt and Associates said many vendors came together to donate service and materials for the home, which he said was appraised at $335,000.
"It's not a dream; it's not a joke; it's real," Mr. Pratt said when some family members said the Maynors admitted to still being in disbelief.
The Maynors' their 1-year-old daughter, Emma Kate; and about two dozen family members arrived at 2:45 p.m. to tour their new home for the first time. They all enthusiastically studied the home's hardwood floors and ornate metal staircase spindles. When they family entered the massive master suite almost everyone let out giddy giggles or gasps.
The couple, who had been trying to sell their 2,600-square-foot, three-bedroom home near Cleveland, Tenn., for almost two years, plan to move as soon as the house is cleared out and ready for them, Mrs. Maynor said. Selling their current house will then be the next order of business.
"I guess I'll be calling my Realtor to tell her to get busy with it," Mrs. Maynor said.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
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