Published: Oct. 4, 2017
West Bend woman wins a ride in the
Wienermobile
ndettmann@conleynet.com
262-306-5043
More than 30 years ago, West Bend’s Shari Prag
entered a contest and won tickets to see a Professional Bowlers Association
tour stop in Milwaukee.
“It was pretty cool,” Prag said. “I was
married to a gentleman at the time and we went down for that and we were able
to interact with the professional bowlers and get autographs. It was like,
‘Oooh, this is so cool.’” Since then, she’s entered thousands and thousands of
contests.
Her latest one — and triumph — was a one-hour
ride on the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile on Tuesday afternoon throughout
West Bend.
“I enter 30-50 contests per day,” Prag said,
adding “and that’s not even all of them.”
Prag said the biggest thing she’s won was an
ATV. She’s also won trips, tickets to Packers games, tickets to Brewers games
and a lot of household cleaning supplies, such as vacuums.
She has been entering contests since the
1980s.
“It’s fun and I win,” Prag said when asked why
she enters so many contests.
Her first triumph in a contest was after 15
tries — and then she was hooked.
“That was when I really started,” Prag said. “I
probably spent more on stamps for contests than I did for Christmas cards.”
Sean Miller, brand ambassador with Oscar Mayer,
said the company has a fleet of six Wienermobiles that travel the country to
bring the big hot dog to someone’s hometown.
“We spread magic,” he said. “It’s been
awesome.”
The Wienermobile arrived at Prag’s West Bend
home on Chestnut Street shortly before noon and it didn’t take long for the
long and mobile hot dog to get people’s attention.
Passing motorists slowed to point, smile and
laugh at the Wienermobile. Others stopped, got out of their cars and took a
picture with it.
“I’m the coolest neighbor anybody is going to
have,” she said with a smile. “I know how to make the neighborhood rock.”
Before the tour pulled away from the house,
she, along with two friends — Tracey Ratzburg and LeAnn Boudwine — and
Boudwine’s grandson, Cole, sang the Oscar Mayer song.
From Prag’s house, accompanied by Miller and
his colleague, Jena Dalykas, the hot dog drove east on Chestnut Street, past
McLane Elementary School and turned left onto Main Street.
For more passing motorists, there were more
waves and smiles, and walking on the sidewalk quickly pulled out their
cellphones and snapped a photo.
The first stop was Regner Park. From there, the
tour went to the West Bend Harley-Davidson on Highway 33.
Prag is a long-standing member of the Harley
Owners Group so it was the perfect place to stop.
When it arrived, the employees and customers
were in shock, including Tiffany Witte.
“I was in the back office,” she said when asked
where she was when the big hot dog arrived.
She added she was paged that her new car had
arrived and it was out front. She thought, “A new car?”
Witte stepped out of the office and saw the
rolling hot dog. And when she saw who brought it, she wasn’t shocked.
“Nobody would bring it here but Shari,” Witte
said.
Witte and several others snapped photos and
peeked inside.
“It was so clean,” Witte said.
After Harley-Davidson, the tour went to Meijer.
Then it was back to her home where she utilized the hot dog roller and the
package of hot dogs and buns, and started a cookout.
Prag won the contest through the company’s
Twitter page. She said for 40 straight days, she sent an entry via Twitter
answering the question, “I want to be the Oscar Mayer wiener because ... .”
One of her replies was to maybe raise a few
bucks for the military.
Prag entered this contest because she remembers
the commercials featuring the rolling hot dog. There was another reason, too.
“It was about the hot dog roller,” Prag said.
“I wanted to win the hot dog roller.”
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