LYNN — A Lynn woman was the recipient of a $21,000 check from Century 21 Tradition for winning a contest hosted by the real-estate company last year.
With last year being 2021 and Century 21 celebrating 50 years in business, owner of Century 21 Tradition Matt Newhall thought it would be a good idea to do a giveaway.
Anyone who bought or sold a house with Century 21 Tradition between Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2021 was automatically entered into the contest.
“With the pandemic, it’s been a weird couple of years, so I thought it would be a cool idea to do a giveaway,” Newhall said.
There were some restrictions for entry into the contest. Participants could submit no more than two entries and employees of Century 21 Tradition were not allowed to enter.
Newhall hired a company out of Arizona to maintain the entries and information for the giveaway.
After the final submissions were entered and lists and information were reviewed, the company randomly drew a name and emailed Newhall the winner a couple of weeks ago.
Agent Joan Regan sold the house to the winner, Maureen Gilroy.
Gilroy is a lifelong resident of Lynn — graduating from St. Mary’s High School — and a retired teacher at Pickering Middle School. Her father is a retired police officer from the Lynn Police Department.
Gilroy said she was “pleased and excited” to receive the check and has been friends with Regan since they were 13 years old.
Recently, Gilroy suffered from a medical fall and was hospitalized for some time, postponing the presentation of the check until Wednesday.
“She had been through a lot in the past couple of weeks and I can imagine medical bills came about, so I’m hoping this can help her,” Newhall said.
Hearing what Gilroy went through, Newhall said he thought it was great to have a surprise like this coming her way.
“It was kind of like a good-timing thing for her,” Newhall said.
While Century 21 is a national company, Century 21 Tradition is a local branch, based out of Lynn, and hosted this giveaway on its own.
Working with clients mostly from the North Shore area, the chances of winning the giveaway were around one in 150.
“It was pretty good odds,” Newhall said.
Newhall bought Century 21 Tradition three years ago, when it was called Century 21 Hughes, and then bought Jonah Realtors shortly after, merging the two into Century 21 Tradition.
Newhall is still debating on hosting another similar giveaway this year, but said nothing is definite yet.
