Gibson pushes the right buttons, wins car

Push a button, win a car.

That's all Judy Gibson had to do Saturday at Alpine Motors.

Judy and her husband, Gene, stopped by Alpine Saturday morning to pick up a car they had in for an oil change.

They had heard about the General Motors On Star button campaign and she decided to push the button. It was about 9 a.m. on the last day of the promotion.

As manager Duane "Blacky" Black and a few others stood by, she pushed the button and heard the voice of the operator on the line say:

"You possibly, potentially might have won a vehicle."

The operator, who hadn't given away a vehicle in the month-long promotion, didn't know what to do when the spinning wheel in front of him indicated he had a winner.

"They called in a manager and confirmed Judy was a winner," Black said.

What kind of car did the Gibsons win? "It could be a Metro or it could be a Cadillac Escalade," Black said.

"I'm hoping for a Hummer," Judy said Monday night.

The lucky couple will find out in the next few days when they receive official notification from GM. We'll let you know.

"I'm still pretty skeptical about the whole thing until I get official notification," she said. "I'm hoping it's true."

More than 600 people pushed the button at Alpine and tens of thousands did around the country. It was estimated that 1 in every 5,500 who participated won. There were 1,000 vehicles given away in the two-month promotion.

"This was way better than the lottery," Black said. "At least everybody who played this all had their money when they left."

Congratulations to Montana Rockies Rail Tours for its mention in a recent US News & World Report as one of four great fall rail tours in the country. The descriptive paragraphs mentioned gold and red larch birch forests (where balk eagles and moose sometimes forage.) MRRT has racked up some tremendous awards in the industry and won everyone's hearts around here when they sponsored a fundraising trip last year and gave all the proceeds to Kinderhaven.

Marcia Pilgeram, president and CEO of MRRL, has been a great neighbor and her rail tours are getting some of the national press it richly deserves.

Sandpoint snowboarder extrodinaire, Nate Holland, is tearing up the nation and the world on his board.

He was in Japan last week where he finished in the top 10 in both of his races.

On March 5-7, he will be at Mt. Bachelor for the final World Cup race. He won't be there alone. Mom, Rebecca Holland, doesn't want to embarrass or distract Nate, but is working with a local sign maker to catch the camera's eye from ESPN, which is covering the event.

It should work. The huge sign reads Extreme Snowboard Pro rider Nate Holland (or ESPN) and is done in the same typeface as the ESPN logo. Watch for it — and him — on ESPN.

Mom takes part of the credit for Nate's success.

"I provided half the gene pool, made him eat his veggies and got him up on the Tbar when he was little," she said. She left the rest up to Nate.

Dad, Don, might have something to say about that.

David Keyes is publisher of the Bee. His column runs Tuesdays.