Friday, November 16, 2007
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Some people will do anything to make a kid happy.
Jody Powell, 35, hung on to a 12-foot statue of “Hannah Montana” for the better part of six days to win tickets to a sold-out concert by Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel TV show. The concert will be held next week in Tampa.
“I’m ecstatic. It’s like a dream come true,” said Powell, holding four tickets to the show and a photo of his fiancee with her 7-year-old daughter, also named Hannah.
Twenty contestants started Nov. 8, placing a hand on the 400-pound statue in the parking lot of radio station WFLZ-FM, the contest’s sponsor. They were allowed 12-minute breaks every three hours and got catered meals, but weren’t allowed books, cell phones or iPods.
Powell was declared the winner Wednesday afternoon when the other remaining contestant, Lara Padgett, became distracted and let go.
“That sun really got to me today,” said Padgett, who later was checked out at a hospital because she wasn’t feeling well. “I took my hand off the fur-lined boot.”