It feels as though Christmas was just yesterday, so it is no wonder that I find it hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of January. With that being said, I am here to remind you that Valentine’s Day will be here in just two weeks.
As our long-time readers know, with Valentine’s Day in full view (as proven by all the retailers pushing cards, chocolates, stuffed bears and such) at this time of year the staff at the Signal Tribune love to feature our Sweetheart Sweepstakes in our paper. We are romantics at heart. So, with love in the air, and our fondness for Cupid— the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection— we love to give away lovey-dovey prizes in February. Yes, today is the kick-off of our 20th Sweetheart Sweepstakes. With this promotion, our readers cut out entry coupons that appear during the next two weeks in the Signal Tribune and take them to any or all of the 18 participating advertisers to enter the drawings for our awesome prize packages. Check out pages 12 and 13 inside this issue for entry coupons, rules and prize list.
This year’s prizes are incredibly generous, and we are grateful to all the many local business owners who chose to participate by donating such beautiful dining experiences, items and services. I swear, our prize packages get better every year. For 2015’s sweepstakes, we have a record-breaking 20 prize packages to give away.
This year’s promotion will run today and next Friday. The last chance to enter will be Wednesday, Feb. 11 at noon. At that time our staff members will pick up all the entry boxes. Once we have them in our hot little hands, we will take them to the office, count the entries, thoroughly mix them up, draw the winners and then contact those lucky folks by telephone. The winners’ names will appear in our Feb. 13 issue.
Our goal in sponsoring the Sweetheart Sweepstakes is to encourage our readers to patronize local places of business. By cutting out the coupons and depositing them into the “specially marked boxes or pink buckets” at participating businesses, it gives you a chance to visit those advertisers and familiarize yourselves with their goods or services. Our intention is to give our readers a fun reason to visit some local shops or restaurants they may have never patronized before.
For those of you who plan to participate, please don’t just run in and toss your entry into the various boxes. Do take the time to look around and shop or dine at the establishment that so graciously helped sponsor the sweepstakes.
Keep in mind there are rules: you cannot enter by mail, fax or email, and you cannot drop your entry through the mail slot, or it will be thrown away. You must go inside the business and drop your entry blank into the specially marked box or pink bucket.
Also, you may only enter once a day at each business. Do remember to put the right coupon in the right box, or you’ll be disqualified!
A big thank-you goes out to all the folks who so generously donated for our contest. We appreciate your participation. Many of you have donated for all 20 years— you’re the greatest!
So, my dear readers, with a total of 20 prize packages this year, the odds are in your favor. So enter, and enter often. If you don’t enter, you can’t win!
Good luck! Note: To Mother, my husband Steve, staff of the Signal Tribune and participating businesses— No, for the 20th time, you cannot enter, so stop asking! And don’t think you can fool me with a phony name and cell-phone number. After all, I am smarter than I look. Really, I am.
