The fantastic weekend of fun and fellowship continued with the hosts of the 22nd Annual National Sweepstakes Convention, John and Debra Dambra, each giving a speech in the Saturday morning session.  John spoke first regaling us with tales as a retired UPS driver.  Not only did we learn some good tips on how not to miss a prize delivery, but we also heard some hilarious stories from the road.

Next, Debra spoke on radio contests.  She had some great tips, such as: attending as many remotes as you can or teaming up with a sweepstakes buddy(ies) each of you listening to a different station for names and cues to call in.  Also remember to join the station’s online listener club as most have contests exclusively for members.

During the morning session drawings, Craig won our first win of the weekend.  A beautiful basket filled with sweeping supplies.  (I think I’ll save the handmade greeting cards for Thank You’s to the sponsors when we win a big prize!)  I won a huge reusable shopping bag filled with sweeping supplies in the afternoon.  For some reason, we never took a picture.

Prizes!

The Lucky Lilacs brought along a sign to wave, like at a baseball game when the drawings were going on.  It worked as if they were winning.

After a hearty buffet lunch, Joan Farr got up to speak.  I think she would be tied with Judy McCurdy as the most entertaining convention speaker.  My sides were starting to hurt from laughing so hard.  She even gave me the gear for taking her picture.  Joan is so wonderfully animated I must have taken 25 pictures and this was the best one I got.  Her best tip was being grateful and how far a well-written thank you note will go with the sponsors.

More prizes!!

NOTE: The photo of the Saturday Afternoon Grand Prize Winners was removed at the request of one of the winners.

After a bit of a break, we all headed back for another feast.  Since the theme was western, so was the buffet.  YUMMY!

I am not sure if you gleaned from any of the photos, but last summer, our hostess, Carol McLaughlin broke her leg and she was wearing a huge brace.  Her granddaughter was instrumental in helping to organize the convention being grandma’s legs doing a lot of fetching.  Josie couldn’t get over all the prizes being donated.  As a thank you, she was given a big basket of goodies for all her hard work.  The look on her face was priceless.  What a sweetheart she is!

Joan of California won the Lucky Basket I had as a raffle prize on my vendor table.  (You may remember Joan from my April 2006 sweepstakes road trip to Detroit.)

Of course, it wouldn’t be a sweepstakes convention if there weren’t MORE PRIZES!!!