I knew the name Gwen Beauchamp sounded familiar -- back in April of '08, her Toffee-Banana Brownies recipe picked up $5,000 at the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest held at the Fairmont Hotel. Which, turns out, was but a tip of the tip of the tip of the tip of the prize-winning iceberg for the Lancaster resident, who shows up in this morning's Wall Street Journal as one of the biggest sweepers in all the land. Which is to say: If there's a prize up for grabs, Beauchamp's grabbin' for it -- and with great success:
"You're going to get some junk mail, and your spam folders are going to be full," says Gwen Beauchamp, a sweeper in Dallas whose winnings include $50,000, 90 vacations, four cars, a dozen TVs, three computers and one "Disney on Ice" wedding. "It's a small price to pay."Which doesn't begin to list her winnings. Via the Google Machine I found another compendium of her winnings at SweepsU.com, a still-being-Beta-tested newsletter for the "online sweepstaking community" she co-founded with husband Robert. Which doesn't begin to tell the whole tragic, poignant and widescreen story, which her kids recounted for NBC when Beauchamp took perhaps the biggest prize of all: America's Favorite Mom. If only they hadn't already made that movie about Evelyn Ryan.
