Best of SVG $1000 winner collects her prize

NOT EXPECTING THAT she would win anything for herself, a 19-year-old employee of City Life Bar was surprised when she discovered she won $1000 in a draw at the Best of SVG 2020 awards ceremony.

The lucky teen, Alisha Richards, originally from Fair Hall, but living in Riley, did not believe those around her when the news reached her following the draw on the night of February 16. A member of the audience had, overseen by the auditing firm Grant Thornton, picked her name from 2117 participants who voted in 25 or more categories in the people’s choice awards.

Of the 115 categories available, Richards had voted in 87.

“I thought it was a joke the person come and tell me, but then when I actually read the newspaper, I feel excited because it’s the first I’m winning something in my life,” Richards informed when she finally came to the office of SEARCHLIGHT to collect her prize.

Richards was referring to an article published in the February 21 edition of the SEARCHLIGHT that had called for the winner to claim their cash.

Her cousin had told her that she won, but it wasn’t until her boss at City Life Bar, located at Higginson Street in Kingstown, showed her the newspaper on March 2, that she believed her luck.

When she accepted the reality, Richards said that she also felt lucky because she didn’t know she could win anything just from voting.

The teen said the money will be deposited into her savings account at GECCU.

It was the first Best of SVG campaign that Richards had voted in since it began in 2017.

Voting in the 2020 people’s choice awards opened on December 1, 2019, and ran until January 31, 2020. It was the first time that voting could be done digitally.

Richards’ win has proven correct the words of the Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Media Ltd (publishers of SEARCHLIGHT), Clare Keizer who had said on the night of the awards that “The decision (to move to digital voting) resulted in not only a more efficient process, but opened up the poll to people who may not have been inclined or in a position to submit a paper ballot, and notably a younger demographic.”

A total of 14,815 persons voted, and therefore, would have been eligible for the prize had they voted in 25 categories or more.