Mendiola claims grand prize in SCS raffle

Marilyn “Jackie” Mendiola became a sort of minor celebrity on Tinian after Lady Luck smiled on her last Thursday by winning the grand prize of Saipan Computer Services, Inc.’s 2013 Customer Appreciation Raffle.

The 42-year-old Bank of Guam Tinian branch manager said that taking the top prize in the raffle was the farthest thing on her mind when she bought a laptop for herself and two tablets as Christmas gifts last month.

For the record, Mendiola purchased an Asus Notebook, two Asus Memo Pads, a flash drive, and other miscellaneous items worth more than $1,200 when she stopped by and impulse-shopped at the Garapan computer store sometime before Christmas last year.

Mendiola said she originally wanted to purchase a new laptop online but decided against it because she didn’t want to wait for weeks to get her new gadget.

On a weekend trip to Saipan where her husband is based, Mendiola swung by at SCS, Inc. on a whim in order to check out the prices of their laptop computers. A short while later, Mendiola left with the laptop of her dreams as well as two tablets she would be gifting to loved ones for Christmas.

She said she was sold with the Asus Notebook after finding out how lightweight, fast, and tricked out with new features it is.

Little did she know that her purchase that day would lead to bigger things less than a month later when SCS, Inc. general manager Jerry Tiu, assisted by Burger & Comer auditor Gary Bernardo, pulled out Mendiola’s winning ticket in the company’s raffle drawing on Jan. 2.

What’s odd is that Mendiola thought of upgrading her family’s 32” flat screen TV on the day of the raffle itself. So it came as a surprise to her when she received a text from SCS, Inc. around 11am Thursday, asking her to call the company about their ongoing promotion.

While the text message gave her reason to believe she may have won in the raffle, never in her wildest dreams did Mendiola thought she’d hit pay dirt by winning the grand prize of an LG 55” Full HD 1080p LED Smart TV and sound bar.

She said the win is a special belated Christmas gift to her and her family and thanked SCS, Inc. and Jerry Tiu and her wife Kazuko, managing director for the company, for holding the customer appreciation raffle.

Mendiola said she already told SCS, Inc. staff that she will go on another shopping spree before Christmas 2014 for another shot at the company’s customer appreciation raffle.

Aside from Mendiola, other big winners of the raffle were Edeng Siruma, Wilmer Sablan, and DeeDee Towai who won an Acer Aio Desktop PC, a Canon Rebel SLR camera, and an Apple iPad Air, respectively.