OK, here's the backstory: I've been entering the PCA annual raffle for a few years now. It used to be $100 / ticket, only a couple thousand tickets sold, and the proceeds went to the American Cancer Society. So I figured whatever, I'll buy a ticket and it will go to a good cause. In the past couple of years PCA started doing the raffle directly, and I continued with it. This year it was $50 / ticket but I was used to buying $100 tickets, so I bought two. The raffle would only sell a maximum of 4,750 tickets total.
My brief Porsche history: I started with a 1983 944 which I had for many years and did some Driver's Ed events with. As I moved up through the run groups it ended up being a bit sluggish to keep up on the track, so I upgraded to a 1986 944 Turbo. Earlier this year that car developed a rod knock on the track, so I ended up getting a 1987 944 Turbo to replace the '86 just over a month ago. As of this writing I still have both Turbos.
So my birthday is June 20; this year it was on a Friday. I normally take the day off on my birthday, just to enjoy the day even if I don't have any plans. Around 8am we get a phone call, my wife answers so I just hear half of the conversation. It apparently was a pretty cryptic call, she didn't know who it was or where they were from, just that they said that they understood it was my birthday and they had something to drop off and wanted to know if we'd be around at about 3pm. Jen confirmed that yes, we both had the day off and would be around.
Later in the morning I just checked the caller ID and saw the name "Nguyen, Vu" on the phone. I thought the name looked familiar and I checked my email archives and saw that all my Porsche Club emails come from Vu Nguyen. I thought that was weird that somebody at PCA would be calling us saying they had a delivery for my birthday. I've been a member 10 years now so maybe they were sending something for a member anniversary.
So I continue about my day and around 2:30 I see an SUV with a few men in it pull into my driveway, and my dog starts barking. My wife was on the phone and tries to quiet the dog and get out of the way so I can deal with the "delivery". Then behind the SUV a black 911 Carrera S pulls into the driveway as well, with a window sticker on the windshield. That's when it really hit me about the raffle and that I may have won it - now the phone call this morning makes more sense. I tell my wife to get off the phone and come outside with me, and the dog is still barking.
We walk out through the garage greeted by 5 men with balloons and holding cameras. I was somewhat bewildered and slightly confused with the happy birthday balloons and what turned out to be Vu saying that they're "from the office". He continued to explain that they're from Porsche Club and that I had won the raffle. Here is the youtube video of my reaction. Yes I know I'm pretty "low key" in my reaction, that's just how I am, but I assure you I was overjoyed at what was happening and had an ear to ear grin the whole time.
So I met everybody who was there, Vu and Manny and a few other gentlemen from PCA who I forget their names (sorry), and Randal from Porsche of the Main Line who provided the 2007 Carrera S for the photoshoot. The whole thing happened fairly quickly - Vu took a bunch of pictures of me and my wife, the car, etc. I sat in the car for a little while, Vu explained to me briefly how everything would work and what the next steps would be, and then we said goodbye's and they took the car away.
Apparently the actual drawing was a few days earlier, on Tuesday. Vu seemed pleased that I was "local" in Pennsylvania because they were able to drive up from Virginia / Maryland where PCA headquarters are located. Apparently Vu had googled for some information about me to find where I work, etc., so they could come up with a cover story to track me down and make sure I'd be available. He ended up finding my amazon.com wish list and realized my birthday was later in the week, and set the plans in motion for that day.
The vehicle I won is a 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S. The 2009's aren't out until mid-September, so I would have to wait. My options are to take a car off the dealer lot when they arrive or go ahead and custom build one to my liking - guess which I'm going to do. PCA had pre-configured the car with some options and I have up to that dollar amount to custom build to, and if I go over that amount I can just pay the difference. There is also a cash prize option of $65,000. Vu encouraged me to take my time and think about the options and I can make a final decision later. But I entered the raffle to win a car and that's what I intended to do.
The rest of my day was spent smiling a lot and talking on the phone to family and friends. Vu mentioned that I can go ahead and tell family and friends, he didn't seem too concerned about it getting out. Word spread pretty quick, after I told a couple of people I started getting inbound calls from others. By 7pm my cheeks hurt from smiling and the whole thing started to sink in a little more.
And oh yeah I opened some other birthday cards and gifts later that day as well. I'm pretty sure they were nice too.
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