Melanie Baker Grand Prize Winner
Melanie Baker was the lucky winner of the 2012 Spruce up the Neighborhood Raffle, which was sponsored by Idaho Power and Lowes on behalf of Pocatello Neighborhood Housing Services (PNHS). Baker won a Whirlpool side by side refrigerator/freezer, which retails for $1,200. Several tickets were sold throughout the year with the proceeds benefiting PNHS neighborhood beautification efforts.
Baker became affiliated with PNHS nine years ago when she received a down payment assistance loan from the organization. She still lives in the same north Pocatello home and says the timing was just right with winning the raffle as her existing refrigerator was “getting up there” and soon needed to be replaced. About a year ago, she upgraded to a stainless steel dishwasher and had been hoping to save up enough money for a matching refrigerator and oven soon. It must have been fate that the refrigerator she won was stainless steel.
Baker was anxious to donate to an organization that had helped her get into her first home and thought she might try to return the favor in some way. “I normally don’t enter things unless I believe in the cause and PNHS is a great cause.”