Surprises for PCH Deputy Even Before the Prize Award

Let the Questions Begin…

It started even before I left for my prize award trip. With a week of preparation and anticipation, I shared the news with my nearest and dearest that I was going to be a Prize Patrol Deputy for PCH. I expected to be asked where I was going and what I needed to bring but instead I was showered with surprising questions such as:

Did I win?

Can you make me the winner?

They really exist?

Don’t they hire actors or models?

…and my favorite…

Were you paid extra to say you are going on Prize Patrol just to make me think it’s real?

All of their questions were very easily answered by explaining that YES, the PCH Prize Patrol really does exist and we do go out on prize award duty in the blue blazers with the prize mobile and the dozen roses and colorful balloons and, of course, the Big Check. The people on TV are not actors, but are real employees, Dave Sayer, Todd Sloane and Eve Fish, all of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting in the halls where I work every day. I then explained that my family could not win since I am a PCH employee, that the winner is picked randomly by a computer program, and that, NO, I am not paid any extra to say that I am going.

They seemed almost disappointed that there was no “smoke and mirrors” to it all … just real people, like me, giving out real prizes to real people, like you (unless you’re a relative or co-worker, of course!).

Oh well, I’m sure this is only the beginning of the surprises I’ll encounter on my prize award journeys for PCH.

Laurel U.

Prize Patrol Deputy