Sheffield Lake Woman Captures Grand Prize In Avon Lake Raffle

AVON LAKE, OH — A Sheffield Lake woman is the grand prize winner in Avon Lake’s annual Shop Local campaign, which recently concluded with a raffle ticket drawing which netted the winner $1,750 in gift cards to local shops and restaurants.

Diane Bublinec’s winning ticket was pulled by Avon Lake Mayor Greg Zilka on Dec. 18. The winning ticket was sold at Erie Nails in Avon Lake. As the grand prize winner, Bublinec wins a $50 gift card from each of the 35 participating Avon Lake businesses that participated in this year’s Shop Local campaign, officials announced.

The annual Shop Local campaign began as a day-long celebration of local businesses but was extended to last nearly seven weeks to encourage local residents and Avon Lake visitors to support local shops, restaurants and businesses.

Due to the success of the campaign, local officials added a raffle ticket aspect to the annual effort. This is the second year that the grand prize winner has resided outside of Avon Lake. Last year’s winner, Karen Hutman, lives in Amherst and purchased her winning ticket at Salad KraZe. Of the 35 drawings that were held at each of the local participating businesses, 20 winners came from Avon Lake before Bublinec’s ticket was chosen for the grand prize.

When this year’s Shop Local event began, Ted Esborn, Avon Lake’s economic development director, expected that the winner would be selected from an estimated 10,000 raffle tickets which were generated during this year’s campaign, which ran through Dec. 18.

"Shop Local-Shop Avon Lake has evolved over the years as we have tried to find what excites and motivates Avon Lake residents to get out to these local businesses," Esborn said at the start of the campaign, which began in late October. "People had fun with the raffle format last year, so we have doubled down on that."

In an email to Patch Monday, Esborn said that the large number of Avon Lake winners in the individual raffle drawings would seem to give local residents better odds of capturing the top prize. But after both of the grand prize winners have come from outside Avon Lake in each of the past two years, those odds haven't played out in the end.

"We'll have to see what happens next year," Esborn wrote.