Surprise twist
Good guys: HSPVA wins H-E-B Montrose Market award and decides to share thewealth
HSPVA representative Dr. Scott Allen poses with a check made out to the school,although he decided to split the difference with the other three charitiesPhoto by Caroline Gallay
Representatives from each of the selected four area charities pose with theirchecksPhoto by Caroline Gallay
In a surprise twist, there were four winners of the new Montrose Market H-E-B's charitable customer's choice contest.
Although Houston Achievement Place, Wilson Wonderground Spark Park, Kids Meals, Inc. and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts competed for a top prize of up to $10,000, it was in the spirit of Thanksgiving that the winner — HSPVA — decided to split the top prize four ways and send everyone home with an equal share.
When all of the more than 5,000 in-store and online votes (facilitated by a CulturePoll) were tallied, HSPVA had won a grand prize of $9,552.
"The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was reading about the other charities and thought, it's Thanksgiving — why not share the wealth?"
After all the checks were handed out, however — including checks for $5,000 to each of the remaining three charities — HSPVA's Dr. Scott Allen took the podium to deliver another bit of good news.
"I wasn't sure who would win, but I asked to take any amount over $5,000 and split it four ways, and H-E-B agreed!"
(Although online votes were to count for $1 each, while in-store votes counted for $5 each, once H-E-B heard of Allen's plan, they doubled the value of online votes to up each charity's winnings.)
Allen tells CultureMap: "The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was reading about the other charities and thought, it's Thanksgiving — why not share the wealth?"
Allen says he immediately got the school's blessing and is thrilled with the way everything turned out.
Wilson Wonderground Spark Park will use its total $6,138 to revamp and revitalize its school park, while Kid's Meals, Inc. and Houston Achievement place will continue to fund their day-to-day missions of assisting children.
"We made an early commitment to be actively engaged in the comunity," said H-E-B spokesperson Cyndy Garza to the crowd of dozens of representatives of the involved charities, parents and kids.
