Of the more-than-10,000 raffle tickets sold for the Seahawks’ Fanbulance, the odds of the winner coming from Whidbey Island were somewhat remote.
After all, the bulk of the tickets were sold off-island.
But soon after the name of Coupeville’s Sam Myers was announced as winner of the sleek rig, the oddities didn’t end there.
As it turns out, Myers’ daughter is a paramedic and her husband an emergency medical technician, and both had driven the same ambulance for Whidbey General EMS before it was decommissioned and transformed into a Seahawks fan’s ultimate dream ride.
Myers even wondered aloud if he might’ve ridden in the back of the rig himself during an emergency years ago, only to learn later it wasn’t the same ambulance.
Now, he gets to ride in one again — one that is the envy of the region’s 12th Man faithful.
“I’d rather be in the driver’s seat, no doubt about that,” Myers said.
Myers, 75, a retired electronics technician in aircraft maintenance at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, was handed the keys to his new rig Sunday in Oak Harbor a couple hours after his ticket was pulled out of a basket at Flyers Restaurant and Brewery at halftime of the Seattle Seahawks’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Myers didn’t attend the drawing, which was the culmination of a clever fundraiser devised by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Island County board member Ron Wallin that accounted for more than $50,000 in ticket sales.
And he didn’t answer the initial phone call to notify him that he had won.
But soon after Island County District Court judge Bill Hawkins drew Myers’ ticket out of a basket, one of the fundraiser’s key participants thought he’d recognized the name and started a search of his own.
Richard King, one of only two people permitted to drive the Fanbulance during the fundraiser, sent a text to fellow Whidbey General EMS paramedic Sherri Brown.
Brown was with her husband, EMT Rob Brown, at their Oak Harbor home when the text came in during halftime and felt a rush when she read the message.
“Richard texted me and said, ‘Is your dad Sam Myers?’” Brown said.
“I just freaked out.”
Myers was at a neighbor’s house in Coupeville watching the game when his daughter broke the news.
She said it took a while before the news registered with her dad, a Seahawks’ fan since the franchise’s inception in 1976.
“I don’t think he’s ever won anything like this before,” she said.
Certainly not a custom green, 2001 Ford-350 diesel turbo emergency vehicle themed meticulously in Seahawks’ colors, logos and other details inside and out.
He was handed the keys Sunday and drove to the Big Brothers Big Sisters office in Oak Harbor Monday to do more paperwork.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” Myers said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters put about $15,000 into the project, netting more than $35,000 toward its mission to match children in the community with positive role models.
Several local businesses also donated their services to deck out the vehicle.
Myers invested $40 by purchasing eight tickets just after Thanksgiving.
“I thought it would be neat to have a chance,” he said. “I was thinking that Big Brothers Big Sisters is an outfit I like to donate to.”
Myers has no interest in selling the rig and plans to keep it stored indoors on the island to keep it out of the weather.
“It’s become a family thing now,” he said.
He admits the little touches particularly appealed to him and joked that he couldn’t ignore a Seahawks calendar autographed by many of the Sea Gals cheerleaders.
Penny Perka, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Island County, said the publicity generated by the fundraiser was especially beneficial to her organization and its cause.
Wallin, who drove the rig to appearances throughout Western Washington, including to Seahawks games, was ecstatic the Fanbulance would remain on Whidbey Island.
“I think it’s so neat,” he said. “We sold tickets all over. We had Canadians come down to the football game to buy them. The farthest, I think, was down to Chehalis.”
It all started with an idea over the summer when Wallin noticed an ambulance at Whidbey General Hospital was earmarked for salvage and began wondering about other uses.
By sheer coincidence, the ambulance was Unit 12.
“It’s one thing to have ideas,” said Tamra Sipes, board president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Island County. “It’s a lot more to have an idea come to fruition. That’s what happened with Ron.”
