Twelve-year Islander Albert Hujer was the lucky winner of Northwest Bank's $25,000 Home Makeover Sweepstakes. Results were revealed late last week.
It all started with a phone call from Michael Samland, manager at Northwest Bank's office at 2300 Grand Island Blvd.
"When I was there the day before and I asked Ava, I said, 'When are they gonna announce who wins?' She knew, and when I got home I got the phone call from Mike," Hujer said.
The contest ran from early February through late May across the bank's three-state network of 167 offices. Hujer's name was drawn by random selection from a pool of hundreds of thousands of names as the grand prizewinner.
"I was thrilled to call Albert and tell him he was our grand prizewinner," Samland said. "We love taking care of our customers, so to be able to tell him he was our $25,000 winner meant a lot."
Hujer is putting a good chunk of his reward into home and personal expenses while the rest will be given to his son who is in the U.S. Army.
"I'm a great believer in that, if you don't try, you don't win," Hujer said.
There was no purchase or obligation necessary to enter the contest. People interested in being part of the sweepstakes submitted their name at their local Northwest office or at one of the 13 home shows Northwest representatives attended across New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio during to promote home loan programs.
