Preschool Bilingual Instructional Aide Wins $1,000 in Shop N’ Win Sweepstakes

All day long Rialto resident Juanita Martinez felt she was getting signs from beyond from her sister, Marge, who passed away eight years ago. “I kept feeling her around me all day at work,” said Martinez, a Bilingual Instructional Aide at Urbita Preschool in San Bernardino, where she has worked for 14 years. “I told her, ‘Marge, are you going to give me something?’” Later that day, Friday, Oct. 11, when she received a call from her husband of 31 years, Richard, that she needed to get in touch with Margie at AdVantage Marketing—the company placed a phone call to her home, where her husband answered—she was surprised to find out that her intuition was spot on. Martinez discovered she was a $1,000 winner and the second winner of the Shop N’ Win sweepstakes. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Martinez. “I got this call from Margie Miller. My sister’s name was Marge. That name was popping up at work all day. And then Margie [Miller] called me and it really freaked me out!” Martinez laughed. “I called my brother-in-law right away—Marge was his wife—and told him, ‘Guess what I won?’” Martinez’s winning coupon was one she’d used at Goody’s Restaurant during an outing with her husband. She said the couple also used some Shop N’ Win coupons at Maria’s Cafe, which they enjoy frequenting. Martinez began using the coupons from the Shop N’ Win monthly coupon book after her brother José picked them up from a local library. He saw there were coupons in the coupon book for restaurants his sister visited, and gave her a stack of Shop N’ Win coupon books to use. “We’ve heard people wonder if [the coupons] really work, and now I know they do!” Martinez gushed. Recently, said her husband, Richard, Martinez has had a streak of luck. She won a radio contest and received free tickets to a concert she was excited to attend, as well. “I called my sons right away and said, ‘You won’t believe it!’ They asked me, ‘What’d you win now?’” Martinez chuckled. Martinez is also a five-year breast cancer survivor, Richard shared. He felt she was deserving of the sweepstakes award. “She’s tough,” he said, adding, “After one of her surgeries, I was in the hospital for 11 days. I almost died, and she was there for me.” The couple has three sons, ages 29, 26 and 23. One of them is a student at UTI college in Rancho Cucamonga, where he is also employed. Martinez said he uses the family car to get to and from school and work. The couple plans to use the money to purchase new tires for the vehicle. “[Richard and I] were just talking about how we would get tires. Now we can!” said Martinez. Martinez said she hears a lot of skepticism about entering contests, but she continues to enter. “I tell people to enter these contests because it only takes one [entry]. You can win!” she said.