Oakville Blogger Wins Volvo for Notre Dame Spirit

Lisa Kelly is driving around Oakville in a Volvo she won for being a diehard Notre Dame fan after an intense, four-month contest.

Through Twitter, Kelly entered Volvo’s Biggest Fan of the Big East contest, a social media-driven challenge that set out to find the most passionate fan in the Big East Conference.

She was selected as Notre Dame’s representative, and received a writing assignment every two weeks. Kelly posted the assignments on her blog, Bridget McGuire’s Filling Station, which is named after a bar from her Notre Dame days.

The assignments varied from picking a dream team of Big East players, to writing about the ultimate weekend at her alma matter.

“It was a lot of research and a lot of work and for each writing assignment, you got scored,” she said. “One person got five points, who won the challenge and then everyone else either got four, three, two, one.”

Each post had to have photos and links, and contestants had to promote their blog posts on social media. After winning two writing assignments, she made it to the final four fans. 

The contestants were sent back to their alma matter for a regular-season game. Kelly was going back to Notre Dame to cheer on the Fighting Irish against the No. 1-ranked Syracuse.

"Our flight got canceled, but there was no way we were missing that weekend,” she said. Kelly watched her team win after driving to Indiana through 8 inches of snow.

It was the eighth time Notre Dame beat an undefeated No.1-ranked opponent at home.

Shortly after, Kelly had her own victory when Volvo selected her as the contest’s winner.

“They tallied up all the points the first week in March and I was in third, and once they determined the final four, it was up to Volvo’s discretion to pick the winner,” she said. “The Volvo people felt that based on all my challenge material and all of the extra stuff that I did, that I went above and beyond and that was why they picked me.”

She beat out 15 other competitors and traveled to New York City, where she was handed the keys to her new Volvo on center court at Madison Square Garden during the Big East Tournament.

Kelly’s social media skills played a big role in her career as well as the contest. After being laid off in 2009, she decided to learn the ins and outs of social media. She was unemployed for one month, finding her new job through Twitter. She now coaches and analyzes media outlets at the Circulation Verification Council.

The contest also led to another job working for No Coast Bias, a sports blog that focuses on Midwest teams. There, she’s covered the Blues and writes a series featuring the current careers of past Notre Dame athletes.

After three years of 140-character status updates, Kelly has more than 4,000 followers.

“I didn’t realize the reach that I had,” she said before climbing into her new car.