PowerStream contest winner donates prize to charit

VAUGHAN, Ontario, July 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rather than accepting the prize for herself, the winner of PowerStream's recently held 'Recharge Your Summer' Twitter contest has donated the Black & Decker rechargeable cordless lawn mower she won to Habitat for Humanity Huronia .

Yasmin Heyat, who lives in a condominium in Toronto, decided that Habitat for Humanity Huronia, also known as Habitat Huronia, could put the mower to better use than she could and asked PowerStream to make the donation to the charity on her behalf. The presentation of the mower to Habitat Huronia was made Thursday at PowerStream's head office in Vaughan.

Heyat, an active Twitter user, had her name randomly selected after submitting a total of 13 contest entries by retweeting multiple 'Recharge Your Summer' contest tweets over a three-week period. Although she was able to increase her odds of winning, she was up against nearly 600 other @PowerStreamNews Followers who collectively retweeted more than 3,000 contest tweets.

Habitat Huronia plans to raffle off the lawn mower at their Restore location in Barrie next month. The donation will be beneficial in a couple of ways. Not only will an environmental-friendly lawn mower be put to use by the eventual raffle winner, but the proceeds from the raffle will go towards Habitat Huronia's community initiatives that help low-income families break the cycle of poverty.

QUOTE

• "I genuinely appreciate the work that Habitat for Humanity does. It creates a significant and lasting change in the lives of so many struggling Canadian families," Heyat said about her choice to donate the mower. "I can't think of a better way to make use of this great prize. Now a person who really needs a lawn mower can win it in a raffle and Habitat Huronia will be able to use that money to fund their incredible home building initiatives."

• "Our ReStore locations fund both our administrative costs, as well as supply money that will directly go towards building homes," Lee Pigeau, CEO, Habitat Huronia said.  "The wonderful thing about being given this generous prize to raffle is that there are no costs involved and therefore 100 per cent of the raffle proceeds will quite literally help finish a home for a deserving hard-working family."

BACKGROUND

• 'Recharge Your Summer' was the second contest PowerStream has run on Twitter since the company began using social media sites as a means of communicating with its customers. The first contest, 'Follow the Smart Grid to Win', held in 2012, was used to help build awareness and educate consumers about Smart Grid technologies and their benefits.

ABOUT POWERSTREAM

PowerStream is a community-owned energy services company that provides power and related solutions to more than 360,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. It is jointly owned by the Cities of Barrie, Markham and Vaughan.

ABOUT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HURONIA

Habitat for Humanity Huronia seeks to provide the pride and responsibility of home ownership to low income families, and to work towards eliminating substandard housing one house at a time.

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CATEGORIES – Community, Conservation

KEYWORDS –Social Media, Twitter, Contest, Electricity, Environment, Charity

Photos accompanying this release are available at:
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=20010

Eric Fagen, Director, Corporate Communications Media Line (24/7): 905-532-4400 Email: Website: www.powerstream.ca