"I'm told that there were more than 30,000 votes for the 248 entries in the Ferguson Extreme Kitchen Contest. So, how did the Sims family win? The short answer: by begging and nagging! I can't count the phone calls, e-mails, Facebook notices and personal appeals my daughters and I made. No one we encountered during the past few weeks escaped our voter-recruitment campaign!

Our friends and relatives forwarded our requests to everyone they know. In fact, our winning the contest is a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of social marketing. I have developed a new respect for the power of Facebook. (My youngest daughter declared it a sure sign of the Apocalypse that a tech-challenged person like me joined the network several months ago!)

Even if we hadn't won the Ferguson contest, I wouldn't have regretted going through the process, and I hope the other entrants had the same experience. Lots of old friends and former co-workers contacted me because they received one of the forwarded messages. I'm shocked by the number of strangers who sent notes of encouragement and assured us that they were voting every day and hoping that we'd win. People really seemed to get invested in the contest. One of my favorite congratulatory messages came from a high-school friend who recalled the old Shake & Bake TV commercial because her votes "hepped."

Although I've been involved in many efforts for church, my childrens' schools, and local civic & arts organizations, I've never been comfortable asking for anything for myself. I had to overcome tremendous personal pride to even enter this contest. I'm so encouraged and humbled by the outcome. God is good."

Ferguson Staff: Week 1 Blog

"Week one of the kitchen remodel was a lot of fun. We started the week off by announcing the winner and surprising her on her doorstep. After the "big reveal" we were all lucky to be able to get to know our contest winner, Anne Sims. Anne is an extremely classy and humble lady who we have all enjoyed spending time with during the selection process. She came in to the Ferguson Showroom the day after the reveal and chose everything for her new kitchen in only one hour! Now that the selections have been made and the materials have been ordered, we look forward to getting started on the "real" work next week."