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Jody's going to Hawaii!

DEVIN WEEKS | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 1 month AGO
by DEVIN WEEKS
Devin Weeks is a third-generation North Idaho resident. She holds an associate degree in journalism from North Idaho College and a bachelor's in communication arts from Lewis-Clark State College Coeur d'Alene. Devin embarked on her journalism career at the Coeur d'Alene Press in 2013. She worked weekends for several years, covering a wide variety of events and issues throughout Kootenai County. Devin now mainly covers K-12 education and the city of Post Falls. She enjoys delivering daily chuckles through the Ghastly Groaner and loves highlighting local people in the Fast Five segment that runs in CoeurVoice. Devin lives in Post Falls with her husband and their three eccentric and very needy cats. | March 19, 2022 1:07 AM

Jody Mitchem is about to say "Aloha" to a dream vacation.

"I never win anything, so that's pretty exciting," Mitchem, of Post Falls, said during a visit to The Press on Friday.

The 39-year old single mom of four and brand new grandma is the winner of the North Idaho News Network's Forever Summer Getaway trip. She'll enjoy a week at the Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach on Oahu, including two round-trip tickets, a $1,000 travel voucher and tickets to the Wet 'n' Wild Water Park and the Sea Life Marine Park.

"It's one of my dream trips actually," Mitchem said. "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii."

Mitchem, originally from Kellogg, works as a perioperative assistant at North Idaho Eye Institute and as an emergency room tech at Shoshone Medical Center. She usually goes on a small trip once a year, but never to Hawaii.

"Doing this is super exciting," she said.

She was working in the ER on March 11 when she received a few calls from Javis Cornett, North Idaho News Network audience development director. She thought it might be one of her kids calling from an unknown number.

"He said, 'I just want to congratulate you. You won!'" she said. "I'm like, 'Who's really calling me? This isn't real.'"

After she confirmed the Forever Summer Getaway prize was indeed for real, she went to the nurses' station to share the news with her coworkers.

"I was like, 'I just won a trip to Hawaii,' and they're like, 'Shut the front door, it's a scam,' and I'm like, 'He seemed pretty legit.' I'm still in shock right now," Mitchem said.

Mitchem won the getaway vacation, valued at more than $5,000, by subscribing to the Coeur d'Alene Press' forever rate in October. The forever rate is an amount subscribers may lock into that can never increase as long as they keep their subscription current.

As a subscriber, The Press is part of her morning ritual.

"It's kind of my morning thing," she said. "I get up, I make my coffee and I turn on my news and I sit down and read the paper and look through it before I get on with my day."

She plans to take one of her girlfriends on the tropical adventure.

"We'll just kind of relax, give me some sunshine, lie on the beach, check out the water," she said.

Publisher Clint Schroeder and Cornett congratulated Mitchem and thanked her for subscribing to The Press.

"We are very excited for Jody," Cornett said. "What an awesome vacation for an awesome and deserving person."

"I can't think of anybody better to win this trip," Schroeder said. "This really is exciting. I can't think of somebody more deserving, especially a first responder, mom of four kids. Both of those things make her more than deserving of a vacation."

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