We are giving away $1,000 every month this year! You can win $1,000 this month at no purchase necessary, just visit www.citynewsgroup.com and enter to win!
Our next $1,000 prize winner is Anne Merovich resident of Pomona and Senior Manager of Game Presentation and Events with the Ontario Reign professional hockey team who is ready to start seeing fans back in the arena.
“Now, we’re getting ready to be back in Toyota Arena and having fans and getting closer to normal," Merovich said. “October 15 is officially opening night. “
Merovich won $1,000 and you have the chance to win too! Visit us online and search for the bag of money on our local business advertisements, click on each ad, enter your contact information and win! No purchase necessary. You may enter every day on every ad with the bag of money icon to increase your chances of winning. We will announce the winner for the month of June on July 1st.
With opening day for the Ontario Reign quickly approaching, Merovich is preparing herself to come back into the office and back into an arena with fans.
“There’s always a little bit of nervousness, you know, will we ever be normal again?” asked Merovich. “But it would be nice to have fans. One of the things I love is just calling the scoreboard show, that’s my favorite thing about my job and I couldn’t do that this year. It’ll be nice to be able to have video board and create those videos to create that excitement for the players for the fans and have an arena that’s hopefully full or close to it as the season goes on.“
Although Merovich will be going back to the office this week and getting ready for opening night working on what she loves to do, at the start of the pandemic, everything changed.
“They cut our salaries, initially 20 percent then they made us part-time, so 50 percent, if we weren’t furloughed or laid off. I was one of the lucky ones. It’s all of AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), since the Ontario Reign and the LA Kings are a part of AEG it was a companywide decision of trying to get through the pandemic.“
With the new reality of living in a pandemic and now being a part-time employee, Merovich found a new routine in her life that would help her overall health.
“I felt like I needed to take care of myself,” Merovich said. “I just got into an exercise routine through my company and insurance they offered us an ability to join an exercise program… I lost 30 pounds because of it, which is great. I did have incentive no doubt a wedding coming up will give you some incentive but just trying to hopefully implement that life style when we go back into the office.”
Among the conditions that changed in Merovich’s life amidst the pandemic, one of the most important was the postponement of her wedding, twice.
“I was supposed to get married,” Merovich said. “We were going to get married back in Pittsburgh because we both are from Pittsburgh originally, however we didn’t meet there; we met in Cleveland, Ohio. We were going to get married because both of our families are there but because of the pandemic, and we have a lot of, at least on my side, there are a lot of high-risk individuals so it just wasn’t worth it.”
Merovich and her fiancé are now planning on getting married on August 13, of 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, their home-town in front of all of their friends and family.
“It might be a little late but we figured at this point if we didn’t go running and screaming from each other, we’re okay,” Merovich said. “We’re basically married anyways, we just need the formal paperwork and to celebrate with family and friends.”
City News Group started this Click and Win Sweepstakes in March of 2020 when COVID first hit our community. We wanted to help the local businesses stay in business and in December for our $1,000 grand prize giveaway, we wanted to help a family have a nice Christmas! So, we got our heads together and came up with this program for the community.
Due to our 2020 sweepstakes program being such a success from the support of the local businesses and all of the participating community members, City News Group has decided to continue the Click and Win Sweepstakes in 2021!
Your chances at winning $1,000 just got even larger because we will be giving away $1,000 EVERY MONTH! Continue to come back to www.citynewsgroup.com and keep entering for your chance to win at no purchase necessary!
Merovich noted how easy it was to enter into the Click-N-Win Sweepstakes and how much she enjoyed the experience.
“When I saw it, I was like, that’s a good idea!” Merovich said. “It’s good to know what’s opened, when COVID hit nothing was, you didn’t know what was opened some places were opened some places were not, some places are take-out some places are closed, they were opened now they’re temporarily closed so it helps you know what’s going on and at that these places exist, you wouldn’t know that otherwise.”
Merovich appreciated the overall message and motive of the Click-N-Win Sweepstakes, learning about the small local businesses and she of course enjoyed the end result.
“And you get rewarded for it, even better!” Merovich said.
We know how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives and this program allows City News Group to share and show some positivity to local businesses and to all of the members in the community.
With her $1,000 earnings, Merovich plans on spending it on celebration.
“It’ll probably be bucketed into a couple things like go have a nice dinner, go see family throw a little towards the wedding so it’ll go to a little couple buckets so that it’s celebrated more than once.”
Thank you for going online. Thank you for looking at your local business’ ads. Be sure to share what local businesses you would like to see participate! And please visit our advertisers and tell them how much you appreciate them participating.
“Last year was tough for everyone and I was not the worst off by far and I know that and I’m very appreciative of that fact,” Merovich said. "Thanks to you guys for doing this and helping the businesses; letting people know that they’re still opened; it helps; it’s great, it helps keep the community together.”
A community should support each other and we hope this is a way to bring everyone together again. So keep on coming back because City News Group and our local businesses are here to stay!
For more local news and information click here.
Local Business Owners: Interested in joing the Click-N-Win Sweepstakes? Watch our informational video below:
[END]