Published: June 12, 2008 02:54 pm      

Valley View woman wins car from Ellen

A local woman took home her new car last week after winning the GMC Acadia in an at-home viewer contest sponsored by the Ellen Degeneres Show.

Sparkman found out she won the sport utility vehicle in early March.

Brown Motor Company then obtained the vehicle — made to order according to Sparkman’s specifications.

The Acadia took so long to come in, she said she had grown somewhat skeptical of the whole thing.

“I kept thinking, ‘Is this for real? Did I really win?” she said later.

Last week, she and her family finally got to drive the car home.

Sparkman said she usually watches the Ellen Show — a variety/talk fest on days she isn’t working as a substitute teacher at Valley View ISD.

Sparkman said she got a phone call on a night early March. Degeneres was on the other end.

“To tell you the truth I didn’t remember a thing I said to her,” she said at the time, laughing. “I couldn’t even remember where I lived.”

Sparkman said she, her friends, family and students have since watched a telecast of the phone call via a link on the Warner Brothers Web site.

“She said who she was and I said ‘no way,’” Sparkman remembered.

She said at first, Degeneres made small talk for a moment and then asked her to step outside and check the weather.

When she did, Sparkman said she was greeted by contest officials and a new GMC Acadia.

“There it was sitting in my driveway,” she said.

The Acadia at Sparkman’s home that night was just a promotional item.

Sparkman placed a special order for her new vehicle.

“It has all the bells and whistles,” she said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.

She said when they found out she won the car her sons, Aaron, 11, and Hunter, 7, gave her high 5s when she walked back in.

Sparkman said she entered the contest at the show’s Web site.

“I knew that she (Degeneres) was having a contest. I just went online and registered and a week later, I actually won the big prize,” she said.

She said she believes Degeneres told her that more than 200,000 viewers entered the contest.

Like many who have won big prices, Sparkman said she does not consider herself a particularly lucky person.

“I never in my life would’ve dreamed of this,” she said.

Her hands were shaking so much when she tried to sign some paperwork for the SUV, Sparkman said her husband, Scott, had to do the writing for her.

Friends and family seem genuinely thrilled for Sparkman.

“She is well deserving of it,” her sister-in-law, Tracie Sparkman, said.

Sparkman said she is planning to purchase a personalized license plate to express her appreciation for the new car.

It will read: ThxEln.

“For ‘Thanks, Ellen,’” she said.



On the Net:

The Ellen Degeneres Show Web site may be accessed at ellen.warnerbros.com.