MoneyGram announced in August that Sheryl Igarta, a MoneyGram customer in Streamwood, IL, is the 2006 grand prize winner of MoneyGram’s annual “Win $75,000 To Buy A House For Mom” Sweepstakes.
All MoneyGram customers in the U.S. sending MoneyGram money transfers to any international destination outside the U.S. and its territories between April 1 and May 31, 2006 were automatically entered in the sweepstakes. There was also a “no purchase necessary” method of entry where interested consumers could have entered the sweepstakes by mail.
Igarta, who is a nurse, moved to the U.S. in 2005 to work. She now sends money transfers each month to her parents in the city of Baguio in the Philippines. The MoneyGram money transfer of $500 that she sent to her parents on April 15 through the Wal-Mart store in Streamwood was randomly selected as the winning entry.
“I still can’t believe it,” said Igarta. “I can’t believe I’m this lucky.”
Igarta only began using MoneyGram’s money transfer service earlier this year after deciding another service was too expensive. A friend recommended MoneyGram to Igarta, who tried it and liked it.
Igarta normally sends money to her parents to help with medical expenses but now she plans to use part of her winnings to help her parents with housing. They are still trying to rebuild their lives after a typhoon in the Philippines devastated their home.
The grand prize winner is not required to use the prize money to “buy a house for Mom,” but many winners over the years have used the winnings to help their mothers. The 11-year-old sweepstakes is timed each year to occur during the weeks surrounding Mother’s Day, a time when many people observe that holiday by sending money transfers to their mothers living far away.
MoneyGram will also award 40 first prizes of $500 each. Those winners will be notified in September.
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