Story and photos by Gail Parsons
1st Inf. Div. Post.
A routine check of emails right before Thanksgiving gave Steven Stanislow a shock — there was a message saying he was the winner of a $3,000 shopping spree at the Fort Riley Main Exchange.
“I was kind of suspicious — it did not feel real,” he said. “I did think it was a fraud, I had to call and ask.”
He put a call in and Robin Ayling, general manager, confirmed it was not a hoax. Once it settled in, he called his wife, Norma.
“The way he said it was not good — first thing he said was ‘Are you sitting down?’” she said.
Over the next few weeks they, their daughters Maria and Stephanie, and Steven’s parents Steven and Lorry Stanislow, made several trips to start planning the shopping spree they would take Dec. 21.
First on the list was to replace some household items and Christmas shopping.
“We can get slightly nicer gifts for friends and family that help us out a lot,” said Stanislow, who was medically retired in 1999.
After the formalities, they grabbed three shopping carts and took off. The first stop was the vacuum cleaners. From there they hit the kitchen supplies, games and clothing — and the carts started filling up.
“(We’re getting) game systems for the kids, so we can beat them at something,” Norma said.
The windfall, right before Christmas, was great timing for the Stanislow family. Timing was also good for getting the word out about changes to the rules on who can use the Exchange, Ayling said.