Grayson Jewelers Presents Local Woman With $1,000 Mortgage Check

Every few months, Grayson Jewelers holds a drawing where it pays for the first $1,000 of one lucky customer's mortgage. 

On Monday (Dec. 2), Grayson resident Bryn Lieto's ticket was picked in the jewelry store's 15th drawing. 

"I'm totally speechless," she said when she was phoned about winning. "I can't believe it!"

Grayson Jewelers has held the $1,000 drawing for the last three years. 

"I thought, because of the downturn of the economy several years ago, what could people really use?" said Joe Kalish, who owns the Grayson Highway jewelry store with his wife, Beth. "It's just a way to give back to the community that's given to us. It's been cool, we love doing it."

While Grayson Mayor Jim Hinkle has always done the honors of randomly picking the ticket at random and calling the winner, this time Mayor-Elect Allison Wilkerson decided to jump in and take his place. 

Lieto's ticket was among at least a thousand others in the bowl, which had been collecting tickets since September. Lieto, who's been a dedicated customer since Grayson Jewelers opened five years ago, said she didn't put her name in the bowl until Black Friday when she went in to buy a Christmas present. 

"This will help out a lot," she said, adding that she'll be able to pay more of her bills now. Lieto lives with her 15-year-old daughter who goes to Grayson High and son, 13, who goes to Couch Middle.

Many of the drawing's other recipients have shared similar stories of need, too. The winner before Lieto only had a $600 mortgage, but the Kalishes also presented her with a Pandora bracelet after the woman discovered she had cancer and she and her husband both lost their jobs. The drawing's first winner ever told the Kalishes that, because her mortgage was taken care of, she could finally buy a plane ticket home to visit her family for the first time in a long time.

Grayson Jewelers is located at 2023 Grayson Highway, Suite 109.