Gladstone Homes Announces Milestone 1000 Winners

"A mortgage reduction." "A charitable donation." "A nest egg." This is what the winners of Gladstone Homes' Milestone 1,000 sweepstakes answered when asked, "What would you do if we handed you a check for $25,000?"

Dave Schnitz of Oswego, Ill., Tony Howe of Sugar Grove, Ill., and Diane Hanson of Yorkville, Ill., are the winners of the Milestone 1,000 sweepstakes, which awarded a total of $75,000 in cash prizes Saturday, Sept. 24.

Gladstone's Milestone 1,000 event was held in celebration of the builder's approaching sale of its 1,000th new home.

Three drawings were held Saturday, one for each of the Gladstone Homes sales centers where a total of nearly 1,200 sweepstakes entries were collected between July 15 and Sept. 18. Winners were required to be present at the drawing and more than 400 entrants attended the event in Yorkville at Gladstone's Eaglecrest at Grande Reserve sales center, along with family members and friends.

Schnitz, a project manager for a commercial construction company, won the drawing from entries at Moose Lake Estates in North Aurora, Ill.

"I've never won anything more than a door prize," he said. "In fact, when they took the stage to start the drawing, I headed to the back so that when the last name was drawn I could beat the crowd out."

Instead Schnitz had to work his way back through the crowd, the first winner to take the stage with Dave Bolger, Gladstone Homes founder and president.

Schnitz spent nearly a year visiting approximately 20 different area builders. He recently purchased a Gladstone town home, the Daystone plan at Heritage Oaks in Plainfield, Ill. He will apply his winnings to a mortgage reduction at closing later this year.

"I looked and looked and kept coming back to Gladstone," he said. "I was impressed by the quality and the floor plans."

Howe, a voice systems supervisor at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Ill., won the Eaglecrest at Grande Reserve drawing. He once won a $25 prize in a recipe contest but says this is, literally, a thousand times better.

Howe and his wife Gardenia are music lovers who enjoy singing to their 4-year-old daughter, Grace, taking walks and visiting model homes for decorating ideas. The couple is still making plans for the $25,000 prize but intend on donating a portion of the winnings to the First Christian Church in Aurora, Ill., where Howe occasionally sings.

Hanson, whose name was drawn from the Heritage Oaks entries, is eager for Gladstone to put her story, along with Dave's and Tony's, on its Web site. She hasn't yet called her sister in Alaska or her brother in Florida to tell them of her good fortune. She intends to e-mail them a link to the Website to surprise them.

A secretary and data entry clerk who once worked with Howe in the industrial technology department at Waubonsee Community College, Hanson enjoys working with computers and gained most of her skills during her 27 years on the job.

She says she will donate a portion of her winnings to New Life Church in Yorkville, and is looking into investment options for the rest.

"I'm doing temporary work now so it's been difficult to give to my church and I'm really glad to have this opportunity now," she said. "As for the rest, I'm a country girl with simple needs. This will be a nice nest egg."

Gladstone Homes' slogan is "a lasting impression behind every door" and Dave Bolger wanted to celebrate his 1,000th home in a way that would make a lasting impression.

"I started Gladstone Homes in 1989 with a single parcel of in-fill land," said Bolger. "This event celebrated a dream achieved through the hard work of my staff and sales force. I hope the prize money will help Dave, Tony and Diane achieve their dreams."