December 13, 2001

1:51 PM

Do you dream of living on a secluded island surrounded by all of the ice cream you could eat? Here is your chance! And have you ever heard of anyone actually winning one of these essay contests?
posted by Dinzie (13 comments total)

Fixed link
posted by starvingartist at 1:58 PM on December 13, 2001

All you need to do is write an essay about that dream and send it to them—along with a check for $200. Marilyn Cuthill and Hal Seifert are offering up their business, the Lopez Island Creamery, as a prize in an essay contest. If they don’t reach their goal of 17,500 entries, the contest could be canceled.

$3.5mil??? That had better be some damned good ice cream.
posted by starvingartist at 2:01 PM on December 13, 2001

I thought Tuesday was Ice Cream day.

I dunno if $200 is good deal for a 1/17,500+ chance of winning an ice creamery.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 2:02 PM on December 13, 2001

I think the pictures of Lopez Island must be doctored; it's sunny in every one of them, not common for Puget Sound, WA.
posted by msacheson at 2:10 PM on December 13, 2001

isn't that, like, illegal or something?
posted by th3ph17 at 2:13 PM on December 13, 2001

Ahhh, to live on a secluded island, with ice cream easily available. If only I could... oh wait, I do!
posted by rusty at 2:14 PM on December 13, 2001

"...if you have your heart set on winning the creamery, you had better hope that your essay is not the best of the batch. The creamery is actually the second-place prize.

First place is Lopez Storage, another business owned and operated by the couple."

Winning a storage facility isn't nearly as cool.

Also, the contest rules say they get to keep $40 out of every entry for "handling", should they not get the 17,500 entries.

So, say they get 15,000 entries. Forty bucks out of each nets them a cool $600K profit, plus the interest earned on the original $3 million (15K entries X $200) while the money sits in their account.

A pretty nifty scheme.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:39 PM on December 13, 2001

Only if they have 709 flavors. (Including salmon, liver, avacodo)... The finest ice cream in the northwest is made by UMPQUA DAIRY in Roseburg, Oregon. Check out what these food freaks at eGullet.com say about Umpqua Ice Cream. What a cool site for fooders.
posted by Mack Twain at 2:44 PM on December 13, 2001

I thought Tuesday was Ice Cream day.

Dunno about that, but December 14 is National Bouillabaisse day - according to Bizarre News.
posted by Nauip at 3:03 PM on December 13, 2001

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer story: "According to the [Washington] state Attorney General's Office, essay contests are a legal way of exchanging property...The attorney general advises caution before entering such contests. Find out the exact criteria for winning. Ask about the judges and their qualifications. Make sure the entry fees are being kept in an escrow account. And make sure there really is a business or piece of property to be won."
posted by Carol Anne at 3:32 PM on December 13, 2001

They can take their $200.00 dollars and stick it.
If I want to live in isolation i'll lock myself in my shed for a week.
posted by Spoon at 3:53 PM on December 13, 2001

Yeah, sure sounds like a scam to me. And who's to say they even read all 17,500 plus entries, and don't just choose the winners from the top of the pile and take their $3.5 million dollars to a more exciting and metropolitan area of the San Juans?
posted by Hildago at 4:33 PM on December 13, 2001

Very weird, very fishy.

Now regarding living on an island and indulging in ice cream, here's a tidbit on living on an island and getting fat.
posted by mmarcos at 4:48 PM on December 13, 2001