North Adams Transcript

NORTH ADAMS -- With the turn of a key, Carol Degrenier of North Adams became the second was the Berkshire County resident to win the Vox Communications "Home Free" House Giveaway.

Degrenier was one of 200 finalists in the home giveaway to congregate at the Bosquet Ski area in Pittsfield on Saturday for the final drawing by Vox, which owns WBEC AM, WBEC FM, WNAW, WSBS and WUPE.

"It still doesn't feel real," Degrenier said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "It all happened in just a few minutes time."

The $240,000 prize package includes a one-floor modular ranch-style home from Builder's Network in Pittsfield, along with a foundation provided by Brian Hoag Foundations, site preparation from McKnight Landscaping, plumbing and heating from Don Davis and electrical work by T&M Electric. Degrenier will also receive a $1,000 gift certificate to Taconic Valley Lawn and Garden Center.

"It's really cool to give away a home for the second year in a row," Peter Barry, vice president and market manager for Vox Communication's Berkshire stations, said Tuesday. "It's rare for a prize this big to be given away in not only a market of this size, but also in the bigger markets. They're not doing this in the Albany area."

Each of the 200 finalists, who were awarded a winners certificate at one of a series of live broadcast drawings over the last few months, was allowed to pick a key and try

to open door No. 1. Only five keys would open the first door. From there, the five finalists would choose an envelope which held a key.

And of those five keys, only one opened door No. 2, Barry said.

"When I picked my key there had to be about 75 keys left in the bowl," Degrenier, who won her certificate at broadcast at Carr Hardware in North Adams, said. "When my key opened the door, I was the last of the five finalists, so I didn't have the choice of picking an envelope. It was just handed to me."

She would watch as the four other finalists each tried their key in the second door and unsuccessfully try the lock.

"I knew I had the winning key when the fourth person failed to open the door," Degrenier said. "The other people had been sitting there for quite a while, but it had only been a matter of minutes for me. To think about the odds of that happening -- it still hasn't sunk in."

Degrenier will meet with the Builder's Network this week to discuss possible locations for her new home.

Last year, Kristin Finnerty and husband, Dan Lanoe, were the grand-prize winners of a two-floor Cape Cod-style modular home. The house was placed on the couple's Sheffield property in April.