Lloyd Spurgeon tries to take his family to Disney World once a year, but the journey from their home just past Harrison Bay is expensive. So he brought a piece of "the happiest place on earth" to them - and it won him a Disney World prize package.
Lloyd Spurgeon isn't on Walt Disney World's Main Street, USA, but the realistic re-creation he painted on his daughter's wall makes it look like he is. The mural recently won him the Our Child's Room Went Disney contest.Although he hasn't painted much since receiving an associate's degree in art from Chattanooga State, the re-creations of a "Pirates of the Caribbean" scene and Cinderella's Castle that the father of three painted on his children's walls were both selected to the pool of 13 finalists in the Our Children's Room Went Disney Contest.
His freehand depiction of the theme park's Main Street, USA, with Cinderella's Castle in the background won through a voting process, which even had people in Norway voting for Spurgeon, he said.
"There was some good ones in there, so I didn't know I would win," he said. "This one guy kept pulling like 100 votes ahead of me. I don't know how I pulled ahead, but I did."
Although Spurgeon drew the scene based on a picture, he has many of his own memories of the place. One of his uncles helped build Disney World, he said.
"We went every year when I was growing up as a kid, so I try to take my family down," he said.