LIHUE — Joanna Carvalho has played Football Fever every week this year. Some weeks, she did well. Others, not so well. She was pretty sure her most recent form that included 15 picks of college and NFL football games wasn’t
LIHUE — Joanna Carvalho has played Football Fever every week this year. Some weeks, she did well. Others, not so well.
She was pretty sure her most recent form that included 15 picks of college and NFL football games wasn’t one of her best. So she was surprised when a friend told her she had a message about winning the weekly contest featured in The Garden Island.
“I don’t think so because I got all my Green Bay picks wrong,” she said, laughing.
She was right. She didn’t win the $250 weekly cash prize. She won the grand prize.
A Football Fever entry form with Carvalho’s name was randomly drawn from nearly 4,000 submissions for the contest throughout the 20-week season.
Carvalho was incredulous when told her prize valued at $2,000 included a trip for two to Las Vegas, round-trip airfare, four or five nights hotel accommodations, three meals daily and $500 cash.
“Are you kidding me?” she said. “I was like, ‘I thought I won $250. I’m the big winner? Oh my God!”
She plans to head to Vegas later this year.
“I love it,” the Wailua Houselots resident said.
Carvalho joined the Football Fever crowd two years ago and has been regularly submitting her selections of who would win in matchups of college and NFL games.
“I go to PS&D in Lihue and drop it off,” she said.
She said she does some homework like checking team records and point spreads. She once won the $250 weekly prize.
This year, she said she was off target more than on in choosing the winning teams. Seemed that when she was correct on college games, her NFL picks were off. And when her forecast on NFL contests was accurate, her college guesses were wrong.
No matter now.
“I made up for it in the final drawing,” she said, smiling. “Yay, I won the big one.”
Carvalho said she’s not usually lucky in prize drawings.
“I won a CD from KQNG radio station,” she said.
Weekly Football Fever sponsors included Napa/PS&D, Akamai Pest Solutions, Melinda Mendes, Maruyama & Associates, Puakea Golf Course, Garden Island Auto Sales, 9th Island Bar & Grill, Sueoka Store, Sueoka Snack Shop, Poipu Bay Golf Course, Hopaco, Kauai Restoration & Cleaning and Renewable Energy Technologies.
The weekly drawing for $250 included those who met or beat the score of the winning guest panelist. The panel included Richard Stein and Nick Celario of The Garden Island, and Ron Wiley and Marc Valentin of KQNG Radio.
Carvalho, who visited TGI’s office Thursday to sign papers for her prize, is looking forward to trying her luck again with Football Fever.
“I’ll be playing every week next year, too,” she said.
