The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
YMCA AWARDS 25TH DREAM HOUSE
Mentor man turns the winning key and walks into his dream with family
A Mentor resident who has entered the drawing at least 15 times won the Lake County YMCA Dream House contest by picking its winning key Aug. 12.
When Dave Coyne turned the winning key inside the lock that opened the door to the 2018 Lake County YMCA Dream House at 5360 Highland Way in the new Lakeshore Highlands Development just off Ohio Route 44 north Aug. 12, it was likely the whole crowd of roughly 150 gathered there could hear his gasp.
About 20 minutes later, when asked how it felt to have drawn the luckiest key out of 20 semi-finalists, he still barely could contain his excitement.
“Oh, I’m on Cloud Nine right now!” Coyne said as he sat beside Ernie, his wife of 59 years, and caught his breath inside the home, built by Painesville Township construction firm JEMM. “I feel very elated!”
Ernie responded in kind, reflecting on the moment.
“I’m just happy for Dave, happy for both of us, really,” she said. “I really appreciate it!”
As he caught his breath not quite 10 minutes after winning the dream House, Coyne relived those fast, few seconds that solidified his good luck.
“When I turned the key, I was just, well, stunned,” he said, still appearing to be in a dream-like state. “I mean, it was kind of like when they called last week to tell me I got (Key No. 5 in the semifinals for the Dream House.) When that happened, I hear those first few words, then I didn’t hear anything else. I was just so excited.”
Ernie said the couple has been entering the contest about 15 years, and Dave said he was especially excited because he’s been a member of the Lake County YMCA about 16 years now ever since he began recovering from a heart attack.
“I’ve belonged to the Y since November of ‘02,” he said. “(Ernie) got me a membership after I had a heart attack and the doctor said I needed to start (an exercise regimen.)”
As his family gathered around him to shower Dave with congratulations, Lake County YMCA Executive Director Dick Bennett said this was his favorite part of the whole Dream House project.
“This is always – to me – the icing on the cake,” Bennett said. “When the winner, the family, just gets to start taking it all in; it’s the
best part of a really, really good project.”
And this year’s Lake County YMCA Dream House project was significant for numerous reasons, aside from its quarter-century mark, as Bennett and other organizers said.
“It was extremely successful,” Bennett said of the Dream House contest, which this year generated just shy of $1.2 million for the organization, all of which helps it do what it does best: benefit Lake County residents, according to Dick Fraser, Lake County Dream House Committee chairman.
“(This fundraiser) allows the Lake County YMCA to help the community,” he said, adding that the money it raises helps pay to “enhance facilities and programs for all of its members.”
All in all, Fraser said, this year’s Dream House program sold 100,596 tickets: the most ever. He also said that, despite the Internet’s role in helping promote the contest around all 50 states, the semifinalists in this year’s edition were all from Ohio.
As is the custom during the Lake County YMCA Dream House giveaway, a group of 10 semifinalists also got keys, although not to a house. This year, they got to try their luck at opening a box containing the key to a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox sport-utility vehicle.
“On behalf of (vehicle donor Classic Chevrolet) owner, Jim Brown Jr, and CFO Larry Villines, we’re pleased to be involved with the YMCA Dream House for the fifth year with a car give-away and celebrate in the project’s 25th anniversary,” said John McCurdy of Classic Chevrolet of Mentor, who assisted participants in the drawing for the 2018 Chevy Equinox LS.
Eugene Norris, a pastor in Akron, was unable to attend the drawing Aug. 12, so Lake County YMCA board member Richard Grier was the person to draw the winning car key for him.
Norris was one of the 20 semifinalists for the 2017 Y Dream House and, upon learning he was a finalist earlier this week, said: “I just think I am destined to win since I’ve been picked two years in a row.”
Lake County YMCA Executive Director Dick Bennett began the afternoon with a few comments, including how some of the proceeds from the Dream House project have supported critical programs to improve lives of Y members and others in the community. He cited the new Y swim program that was offered free to more than 200 Painesville City School 2ndgrade students. These students were able to take a one week swim class that taught them how to be safer in and around water.
He added that the program has helped them overcome fears and become more confident swimmers.
“With a wowing record number of tickets sold for the Y Dream House, we are thankful for the community’s support this year. We especially want to thank our major sponsors for a successful 2018 Dream House, including JEMM Construction, WKYC-TV3, The Chevy Network/Classic Chevrolet, Guhde Flooring, iheartradio and McCaskey Landscaping,” Fraser said as he addressed the crowd.
“The Y reinvests every dollar raised from the Dream House back into the community by enhancing our programs and facilities which allows us to accomplish our mission. It is not yet determined how proceeds from the 2018 Dream House will be used, but each of the Lake County Y branches are beginning to determine what enhancements they can make to best meet the needs of their members,” Bennett added.
“When I turned the key, I was just, well, stunned. I mean, it was kind of like when they called last week to tell me I got (Key No. 5 in the semifinals for the Dream House.) When that happened, I hear those first few words, then I didn’t hear anything else. I was just so excited.” — Dave Coyne