Driving away a winner: the WPSS annual truck giveaway steers pool service professionals on the road to success

Pool & Spa News, Feb 28, 2005 by Leland Zaitz

Six months earlier, he bought her a similar truck--it sported the same style and color--only it was a little older than the prize. "So, I took all of her stuff out of the old truck and put it in the new one," McEwen says. "When she came home, she said that it looked like I had washed and waxed her truck."

She couldn't get over how sharp the truck looked and was a bit confused by the transformation--that is, until someone looked closer. "One of my friends noticed that there wasn't a license plate on it," he says. "He guessed the truth and let the cat out of the bag.

"She still has it, and we've never had any trouble with it," he says. "If I used the truck, I'd get it dirty and scratched up, but she's kept it looking brand-new."

Alfonzo Diaz

AAA Pool Service

Palmdale, Calif.

Alfonzo Diaz's wife, Herminia, was the one who encouraged him to enter the truck giveaway in 2001. "Nobody ever wins those things," he told her. She persuaded him to sign up anyway. He says he forgot about the track drawing almost as soon as he submitted his name.

But as the show came to a close, Diaz and his wife noticed a commotion around the truck giveaway area and wandered over to watch the excitement. "You had to be present to win," Diaz recalls. "We heard a name called, but no one answered. They called a second name and then a third. A whole bunch of names were called, but those people were long gone."

Finally, Diaz heard his own name called, and he stepped forward to take possession of his new truck: a Ford Ranger.

He smiles at the memory. "The [ironic] thing about people who win things is, either they're rich or they already own the thing they won." As it happens, he already had a 2001 Ford Ranger; it was even a similar color to the prize truck. Diaz didn't mind. He sold the second truck and applied the money to his business, and says he'll happily enter the next contest he comes across.

Richard Turner

Chem Clear Pools

Fresno, Calif.

Entering the truck giveaway seemed like a no-brainer to Richard Turner. After all, he still remembers the bike he won when he was 8. His luck held out: In 1998, he drove away with a new Ford Ranger.

"There are several guys in the business I see at the show every year, and when I won the truck, I bought them all dinner," he says. "We made a deal after that: If anyone wins the track, he buys dinner for the rest of us." It wasn't until the following morning that Turner's win made a big splash back home.

"I came home late from the show, drove the track right up onto the lawn and parked it in front of the house," Turner says. "When my wife saw it out there the next morning, she ran in and woke me up. We'd had quite a bit of debt going at the time, so she started screaming at me for buying a new track! It took me about half an hour to convince her I'd won it."

Unfortunately, Turner never got to use the truck for his business: His wife drove it instead. "A year later, we separated, and she took the truck," he says, without regret. "The fact is, that's all she took. She didn't ask for part of my business.... I figured it was a small price to pay."