Photo By Master Sgt. Siuta Ika | Carlos Del Valle, 99th Force Support Squadron Outdoor Recreation Center outdoor...... read more read more
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NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – “Is this a joke?” were the only words Carlos Del Valle could get out of his mouth after being told over the phone that he won the 99th Force Support Squadron’s Ultimate Summer Giveaway grand prize of a brand new 2015 Volkswagen Jetta during the event’s finale celebration here Sept. 22.
“It’s not a joke Carlos, and on behalf of all the men and women of Nellis Air Force Base, congratulations and enjoy your new ride,” Col. Zev York, 99th Air Base Wing vice commander, said into the phone in response to Del Valle’s disbelief.
Del Valle was one of almost 10,000 Nellis and Creech AFB members who entered the drawing, which began in June.
“This summer we wanted to find a different way to give to the community; in the past we kind of spent our money on events, bands, fireworks or other things like that, but now we wanted to use that money in a way that’s more beneficial to the Airmen and their families,” said Takeira Jones-Bolden, 99th FSS supervisory marketing specialist and commercial sponsorship coordinator.
“So we’ve given away a plethora of things throughout the summer: Computers, TVs, tablets, headphones, trips,” Jones-Bolden said. “So the grand finale for the summer was giving away a car. I know for the last 10 years, we’ve never given away anything this big. Basically all summer long at different 99th FSS events we had the ballot box out for people to put their names in, which consisted of just writing your name, phone number and email address on a paper and putting it in the box. We’ve had things on Facebook to let people know where the box was going to be too.”
On Sept. 22, the 99th FSS held the summer finale at The Club, where they raffled off more tablets, TVs, cameras and headphones before York drew Del Valle’s name in front of a room full of the event’s attendees. Since Del Valle was not at the event, due to his work schedule at the Outdoor Recreation Center on base, York called his cellphone and put the call on speaker phone so all could hear. In addition to winning the car, Del Valle also was given $2,500 spending cash to pay for the car’s tax, title and licensing fees.
“(York) said I had a parking ticket on base and I didn’t recognize the phone number either, so I thought it was a joke,” Del Valle said. “I’ve never won anything that big so I was nervous, sweating, jumping, screaming - a lot of emotions. I only put my name in when the food truck came to Outdoor Rec for the kickoff event. That was the reason why I couldn’t believe it.”
Del Valle has worked at Outdoor Rec as an outdoor adventure programmer since 2010.
“Right now I’m driving an old truck so this is awesome that I get a new car,” Del Valle said. “To the 99th FSS and Nellis leadership, I just want to say thank you so much, this was an incredible opportunity.”
And to everyone that didn’t win the car, Jones-Bolden offered a bit of solace.
“We got a lot of calls from people who were upset because we weren’t having fireworks on the Fourth of July, so with the giveaways we wanted people to see that this is what we’ve been doing with the money that would’ve normally gone into fireworks or other things of that nature,” she said. “Fireworks last for an hour and then it’s over until the next year, but we’re giving away things that are tangible, things that people can use that last a long time.
“And if we have the opportunity, we’ll do this again next year.”
| Date Taken: | 09.24.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.24.2015 18:08 |
| Story ID: | 177157 |
| Location: | NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA, US |
| Web Views: | 78 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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