PORT ANGELES — No one took home the two top prizes in the 30th annual KONP Home Show door prize contest, but exhibitors won the day as visitors poured in to the home improvement event and seemed in the mood to spend.
Saturday started slow, with wind and snow outside the Port Angeles High School gymnasium but picked up speed in the afternoon, said Stan Comeau, sales manager for KONP AM 1450 and FM 102.1, which sponsored the event with the Clallam County Public Utility District.
Comeau said he expected good attendance Sunday, once people got out of church and saw the bright skies but with accompanying cold temperatures.
“It’s nice to see the sunshine,” Comeau said, as the number of people arriving began to pick up.
By early Sunday afternoon, there were already indications that the show’s exhibitors were going to head home happy.
“We already beat last year’s numbers,” said Rian Patterson, who was at the show to sell metal roofing for InterLock Lifetime Roofing Systems, based in Everett.
“It’s better than the Seattle show,” Patterson said.
After one day, the Spa Shop, a Port Angeles hot tub, and wood and gas stove store, had three times the appointments for a site visit than they did last year, said Jim Sanford, a stove installer who was running the booth for the store on Sunday.
“It’s a better turnout than last year,” Sanford said.
“People are more interested; they’re shopping more,” he said.
The Olympic Peninsula Humane Society had planned to bring a number of animals to the show for an outdoor adoption display but canceled plans after snow began to fall, said Karen Jones, a bookkeeper for the organization who was manning the Humane Society booth.
“It’s too cold outside,” she said.
Instead, they waited at a booth, distributed information on animal welfare and care, and took donations for the shelter and for a herd of 16 severely malnourished horses being cared for by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
Large bills — $10s, $20s and at least one check for $50 — partially filled their donation jars Sunday morning.
People were being generous, Jones said.
“There is a lot of interest in the horse rescue,” she said.
Visitors were finding a lot of things on their lists.
Laura Bouy, 34, of Port Angeles was at the show Sunday morning after her mother visited Saturday and recommended the event.
While Bouy shopped, her daughter, Ella, 7, skipped from display to display, finding candy and other goodies at the booths.
“Everyone is pretty informative,” Bouy said, noting that she had found several businesses with items or services she might use in the future.
Bouy said she found a patch from Bionic Sports, which she said was already helping with pain from carpal tunnel syndrome.
The two top door prizes went unclaimed.
A group of 25 people who attended the show drew the right to roll six volleyball-sized dice for one of three prizes, but no one rolled the minimum number of letters to take home either the $30,000 grand prize or the second prize, a 2012 Nissan Sentra, from Peninsula Bottling and Wilder Toyota.
Bob Kelly of Port Angeles won the third prize of $1,450 and a year’s supply of Pepsi products from Peninsula Bottling.
The contestants needed six letters — K-O-N-P-A-M — for the grand prize, five of those letters for second and four for third.
Several contestants rolled three letters, and all contestants received a case of Pepsi Cola.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
