California Patch Town Wins ‘Deck the House‘ Contest

The Powell family was technically the winner of the Deck the House contest. But since the prize is $100,000 to Davis schools, Kristy Powell doesn't quite see it that way.

“We all won,” she said. “There are a lot of needs at the schools. This is not going to fix it all, but it will help. This is a blessing.”

On Monday Powell was approached by a young girl at , where she teaches. The girl had an adorable suggestion for how the prize money should be spent. 

"She said 'We need tether ball hooks,'" Powell said.

And while that request is mostly just cute and innocent, it also carries some truth, according to Powell. "You want it to benefit the kids directly." 

Powell entered her home in Patch's national Deck the House contest during the holidays and was selected as one of the top 24 finalists in late December.

Davis jumped out to a massive lead the moment voting opened up, thanks to support from civic groups and constant effort by the community, both online and on the streets.

Powell even had her kids and some of their friends hand out hundreds of flyers downtown, divided up in two teams. When they were done, they were treated to .

And then they enjoyed the sense of accomplishment as the votes piled up shortly after.