| Shaylie Huntington expresses her surprise as she wins the car at Emery High. |
The school year ended with the roar of an engine at Emery High. Studentbody president, Shala Pitchforth has been building the excitement for the end of year assembly throughout the school year. The main attraction was the car giveaway. Pitchforth gathered prizes from local businesses and these were also given away. Pitchforth wanted to do the Keys to Success program at the school where students are rewarded for positive actions and accomplishments.
The students received tickets for getting good grades, kind acts, participating in activities and other positive actions. All of the tickets were gathered in a barrel.
Ten tickets were drawn out of the barrel and taped to a table. These 10 names would get the opportunity to draw out a key which would or would not start the car.
The car was a 2002 Crysler Sebring, convertible with 57,000 miles and valued from $6-12,000. The car was donated by Troy Huntsman of Huntsman Motors. He was on hand at at the assembly to watch the action.
| Neal Peacock, Shaylie Huntington and Troy Huntsman from Huntsman Motors. |
The student council raised enough money to pay the taxes, license and registration fees for the lucky winner. Each of the people whose name had been drawn picked a key and tried to start the car.
One after the other the keys didn’t start the car. One of the names drawn wasn’t present so another ticket was drawn. The name on this ticket was Shaylie Huntingon and her key was the lucky one and the car engine roared to life. One of the girls holding a key, sold the key back to Neal Peacock for $550. He was offering her $450 and Huntsman sweetened the pot with another $100. It so happens this key holder had just bought a car not long ago so the cash in hand held a greater appeal. Peacock recognized Pitchforth for having the idea and making all the contacts to make the car giveaway a reality.
The other prizes weren’t to be sneezed at either and included personal DVD players, walkie-talkies, stereos and tons of others. To win the prizes their names were drawn out of the barrel and they participated in contests which included tasting and identifying baby food and answering questions.
Other major prize contributors included: Emery Telcom, Desertview Federal Credit Union and Consol Mining.