DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120471
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   63 lines

ANOTHER PORTSMOUTH FAMILY WINS GRAND PRIZE

When John Newman received a message on his pager about 10 days ago that read, ``You just won $100,000. Call me,'' followed by a row of exclamation points, he ignored it.

Newman figured his wife, Cheri, was playing a practical joke.

When he finally called home about 45 minutes later, Cheri told her husband that he not only had won $100,000 but that he also had won a free trip to the NASCAR awards banquet in New York and to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Los Angeles.

The Newmans, residents of Park Manor, were the grand-prize winners in Food Lion's NASCAR Stars, Cars & Cash promotion, which ran for four weeks this summer in more than 1,100 stores across 14 states.

Coincidentally, the Newmans are the second Portsmouth household since July to win the grand prize in a Food Lion promotion.

Bennet Walker, a 28-year-old shipyard worker who lives in Deep Creek, won a $150,000 vacation home and $100,000 from the Food Lion on Victory Boulevard in Cradock.

``It is unusual that it's happened again in the same city,'' said Tawn Nhan, a Food Lion spokeswoman. ``It was a surprise to us, but (Hampton Roads) is one of our bigger markets.''

Because Food Lion's corporate headquarters received millions of entry forms from all of its stores, Nhan said John Newman's chances of winning the grand prize were about 1 in 15 million.

By comparison, Walker's chances of winning ranged from 1 in 45 million with one visit to the store to about 1 in 6 million after eight visits.

So the odds of two grand-prize winners coming from the same city were ``infinitesimal,'' Nhan said.

On Tuesday morning, the Newmans and their three sons - Brandon, 10, Steven, 6, and Jake, 18 months - were presented with an oversized check representing their winnings in front of the Portsmouth Boulevard Food Lion where they shop ``five to six times a week easy,'' according to Cheri.

To participate in the contest, customers had to fill out an entry form and drop it in a box.

One winner was picked daily for prizes worth about $100 each between Aug. 20 and Sept. 16 in every store.

Then all of the names went into a drawing for the grand prize.

``Every time one of us would go in, we'd enter,'' Cheri Newman said.

``We probably entered several times. I go to Food Lion all the time, and he runs up there for me because we have three kids, and if I'm busy, he gets elected.''

Cheri Newman is suing her former employer, Del.-elect Johnny Joannou, claiming he fired her from his law firm because she was pregnant.

The lawsuit became a campaign issue, but did not keep Joannou from winning the 79th District race this month.

The Newmans will use the money to get out of debt, they say.

``We've got some bad debt we're going to pay off, and if there's anything left, I'm going to try to invest it in my plumbing company to try to get it going,'' said John Newman, 27, who started his business last January.

``And the boys know they'll have a good Christmas this year!'' ILLUSTRATION: MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot

John Newman watches his son Brandon hoist an oversized check

representing a $100,000 prize John won in a Food Lion promotion. He

is the second Portsmouth resident to win a Food Lion grand prize

since July.

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