It took over 300,000 entries, more than 17,000 participants, 52 days, 42 trivia questions, and 5 Top Finalists to select one lucky winner of the Grand Prize – A Beach House For A Year at Seabrook!

BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO AMANDA CALHOUN FOR BEING THE SWEEPSTAKES WINNER!

As most of you witnessed on King 5 Evening Magazine last night, Amanda was the last to go up to the door and try to unlock the winning home with a random key, which luckily for her turned out to unlock the opportunity of a lifetime!

We sat down with Amanda shortly after the Grand Finale and got to know her a little better. Here is the interview with our Sweepstakes Winner!

1. How did you find out about Seabrook and have you visited here before?

I had never been to Seabrook before, this is my first time. I had seen Seabrook’s billboard on I-5 and had also heard some co-workers talking about it. I was intrigued to find out more about the place and decided to check out the website, which is where I found out about the Win a beach house contest.

2. What kind of an impression did the website give you? Is Seabrook everything you thought it would be?

I really liked your website – there were a lot of cool pictures from the town. I definitely got an impression that this is a large beach community. However, when I read online that there were beach cottages here I initially thought all the homes were small, cute cottages. When we arrived yesterday I realized that not only do you have some smaller, charming cottages, but there are also some larger and more full on beach vacation rentals. That was really impressive.

3. Did you enjoy the sweepstakes?

Oh yes, definitely. My husband and I are always looking for places to travel in Washington state, so it was a welcome surprise to learn that Grays Harbor County has so much to offer. I know of a lot of new places to visit now. The ability to earn more entries in the contest by answering the Trivia Questions was great as well. It was quite a contrast to many other contests where you just enter and forget all about it.

4. The Grand Finale must have been nerve-racking?

You know, I thought the whole process was really cool, very fair. We all picked our order randomly and picked our own keys – so fate really decided it all. I ended up going to try my key out last and felt somewhat relieved. We all had time to meet each other before the Grand Finale even begun and everyone was really nice and all of the finalists had some amazing stories. For example, one of the ladies was last here at Seabrook for her 35th wedding anniversary and from that day on, it was a very special place for her. Another lady had just had surgery on her knee and was at the final event on crutches. I actually found myself rooting for each of them every time they went up to the door ahead of me. I was nervous and almost certain that someone else will win the Grand Prize, hoping I didn’t have to go up and face the pressure.

5. What was going through your head when none of the previous finalists unlocked the door ahead of you?

There were so many things running through my mind at that time. At first I was shocked, just thinking “Oh my God I cannot believe this is happening!” Then I was worried that the key may not work for some reason, probably still in denial that I had won. When I unlocked the door I still couldn’t believe it, it felt very surreal. I’m not sure it still has sunk in, really.

6. Now that you’ve been to Seabrook and experienced it, what has impressed you the most?

The first thing I noticed here were the bikes. This really is a walk-able and bike-able community, which you rarely find anymore. It’s really cool to just ride a bike around town in the sun. There are also many places to do different things – going down to the beach, restaurants and shops, just overall there is everything that you’d need while here. It has all the amenities of a resort, but it really isn’t a resort. I took my little brother and sister to the pool yesterday and they had an absolute blast. Since Seabrook arranged for a stay for all of us last night, we were able to bring my mom and gift her a special day at the beach for Mother’s Day. It’s been a wonderful couple of days, thank you to everyone at Seabrook for making this possible!

We will be seeing a lot more of Amanda at the beach. Stay tuned to the Seabrook Blog for further coverage and summary of the 2012 Seabrook Win A Beach House For A Year Sweepstakes! Thank you all again for participating!

With only one more week to go in the Win A Beach House for a Year Sweepstakes, we wanted to remind everyone that not only will our 7th weekly winner be announced, but the Top Five Finalists for the Grand Prize will be randomly selected and announced right here on the Seabrook Blog at 12:00pm next Friday, April 27!

We’ll be working tirelessly to reach all the finalists and ensure they’ll be able to come to Seabrook for the Beach House for a Year Grand Finale. Remember, all 5 finalists will be invited to Seabrook for the Grand Finale scheduled for Monday, May 14, so be sure to save the date! As a bonus, each finalist will be offered accommodations in one of our charming cottage for both Sunday and Monday night.

For the Grand Finale, five different keys will be randomly distributed to the five finalists…one of which will open the front door to the giveaway home! The finalist whose key opens the door is the winner of the grand prize! King 5’s Evening Magazine will be airing the Beach House for a Year Grand Finale on Wednesday, May 16 at 7pm, so don’t forget to tune in!

We can’t wait to find out who our finalists will be next week, but first, please join us in congratulating this week’s weekly winner, MABEL EADIE, who will receive a complimentary 2-night stay in a Seabrook cottage! Mabel, be sure to check your inbox for an e-mail with the information you’ll need to redeem your stay.

We look forward to seeing you all back here next Friday when we announce our final Weekly Winner as well as our Top Five Grand Prize Finalists! Keep those entries coming and good luck!

Wow! We can’t even begin to fathom that we are already at the end of Week 2 of our Win A Beach House for a Year Sweepstakes! AND, only 5 weeks from today, we will be announcing the finalists to win a fully-furnished Seabrook Beach House free to use for a whole year!

Yup, you read that right. At the end of the contest, we’ll select 5 finalists whom we’ll invite to Seabrook for a grand finale to be aired on King 5 Evening Magazine on May 16! Stay tuned for more details on the finale right here on the Seabrook Blog.

As promised, in today’s blog post we are giving away not ONE, but TWO 2-night stays in one of Seabrook’s Luxury Washington Coast Vacation Rentals.

Fortunately, unlike the Favorite Things to do at Seabrook contest which required US to choose the winner, we have two 100% random winners for this week’s prizes!

So, without further ado, please join us in congratulating RENEE DAHLGREEN and ELIZABETH LANGDON!!

Renee and Elizabeth will receive a 2-night gift certificate valued at $500 each! The best part is, they will both be able to pick which Seabrook Cottage they would like to stay in and when they would like to come to the beach!

Thank you to everyone who submitted answers during the first two weeks! We look forward to a lot more excitement to come during the next 5-weeks. While we contact the winners so they can claim their prize, don’t forget to log in the contest website on Monday for round 3 of the Win A Beach House for a Year Trivia Questions!

Whew, this was a tough one. Earlier this summer, we asked you all to share your favorite things to do while at Seabrook. In a short time we received a lot of really good responses from both homeowners and guests! While that made it difficult to select the winner of the contest, we finally found one post that comprehensively summarized many fun things to do while on the Washington coast.

So without further ado, please join us in congratulating Dana H. for being the winner of Seabrook’s summer contest!!

Dana will receive a $50 Gift Certificate to Seabrook’s favorite dining spot, the Mill 109 Restaurant & Pub. Her response was very well written and had a very unique perspective given the fact that she lives in Arizona. Here is what she wrote:

Coming from hot Arizona, Seabrook is always a welcome relief from the dust and heat.

The top things that we have done in Seabrook and the Seabrook area are as follows:

• Relax. Seabrook is very laid back and it’s easy to just relax and kick back for a while
• Watch a movie. Most, if not all rental homes have a DVD player and after the drive from Seattle it is nice to just sit down, relax, and watch a movie to unwind.
• Cool Off. Especially for people like me coming from out of state it is nice to be somewhere it can be sunny and cool, cloudy and cool, or windy and cold. Any one of these is better than where I am coming from and an enjoyable experience. A great memory I have from Seabrook is sitting by the fire outside watching the mist “rolling through the air” from the trees. Hard to explain, just something that has to be experienced!

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