Strathmore Western Financial Group branch awards $10,000 draw prize
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Shannon Louis
The Strathmore branch of Western Financial Group has awarded one of its customers with the $10,000 prize from the Quote to Win Campaign held over the summer.
According to the branch’s marketing manager, Kelly Autet, anyone who got an insurance quote through Western Financial Group between the beginning of July and the end of August was eligible to win.
The draw collected names of inquirers from across Canada and only one name was drawn to receive the grand prize.
Chestermere’s Brenda Hansen was contacted about her name being drawn on Sept. 30 to drop into the Strathmore branch to collect her prize.
“It was very exciting and it was a very good experience,” said Hansen. “I didn’t even know I had been entered into anything, so it was a complete surprise. I didn’t know about the contest or anything because I often don’t read those kinds of emails.”
Hansen and her husband Vernon have been living in Chestermere for roughly 20 years, having moved from Spruce Grove. The couple have been clients of Western Financial group for a similar amount of time.
“So, we’ve always had our house insurance and our auto insurance bundled with them and they’ve always been really good,” said Hansen.
Autet said the $10,000 prize was something different than usual for Western Financial Group, though the campaign is something that runs annually.
“We try and do something similar every year, we generally don’t do a large cash incentive. In 2020 we did $500 increments and this time we decided to do one single prize,” she explained.
“Knowing that in 2020 (and) 2021 (with) COVID-19, a lot of people have experienced hardship or are in need for that extra little bit of financial assistance, so we thought, being that most people will be shopping for insurance or looking for insurance quotes, it was an opportunity for us to just give back.”
Not one to spoil herself, Hansen said she used the money for practical purposes — covering some of the costs of moving and repairing a roof.
“I’m not one of those (people) who goes out and buys a bunch of stuff I don’t need or anything like that. To me it was just a nice windfall just with a lot of extra expenses. It was just a real blessing,” she said.