Shawano resident wins $50,000 prize promotion

WITTENBERG — What do you do when you win the grand prize promotion for a nationwide contest? Some people would shout it from the rooftops, but Jeremy Vollmar kept it a secret for about a month in order to surprise his parents and girlfriend with the good news.

Vollmar, 25, from Shawano, is the winner of $50,000 prize from the Taco John’s 50-year anniversary celebration promotion.

On a trip to Appleton to run an errand, he decided to stop at the Fox River Mall for supper. He’d never been to a Taco John’s before, and people he knew were always raving about the Potato Ole’s, so he thought he’d give them a try. Little did he know the small combo meal he picked up that night would bring him a cool $50,000.

“It was two or three days later, I was going to throw the cup away that was in my truck and I saw the promotion code and decided I might as well do it,” said Vollmar. “A couple of weeks later, I got an email from the company saying I won!”

Someone from the Taco John’s public relations department called to see if he wanted to be part of a check presentation.

“I must’ve asked a million times if I was being pranked.” said Vollmar.

He decided to keep the news a secret from his parents and girlfriend until arrangements could be made to meet at the new Taco John’s in Wittenberg.

“When you tell your parents you have a surprise they tend to think it’s either a marriage or a grandchild on the way, so I knew this would be unexpected,” said Vollmar.

“He told me he had a surprise but he had to wait to get it in the mail and that he had to pick it up in Wittenberg, which I thought was really odd,” said his mother, Chris Vollmar.

His father, Jim Vollmar, noted that they didn’t know anything about the big win until they got to the Taco John’s in Wittenberg and saw the big check.

Jay Szelagowski, who owns the restaurant where the winning cup came from was on hand to congratulate Vollmar. Szelagowski and his wife Mary have owned the Fox River Mall Taco John’s for nine years and were extremely excited that the cup was sold out of their store.

David Hintz, field marketing manager for the corporate office was on hand to congratulate Vollmar and announce that the celebrations promotion has been extended until the end of October with another chance to win another $50,000 along with additional prizes of food and merchandise.

Vollmar plans to spend the money on something nice for his family and spend some on renovations to the house he bought last spring. He had also been in the hospital for three days and the bills were starting to come in which will now be paid in full.

Vollmar hasn’t been to a Taco John’s since the win so he hasn’t had a chance to find a favorite meal but did admit that the Potato Ole’s that drew him to the restaurant were “really good” and he sees stopping in more often in the near future.