Contest win sends local fan to NCAA Final Four

Kathy Gaulding isn't a big basketball fan, but that might change now.

Gaulding, of Cape Girardeau, won $100,000 and an all-expenses paid trip for four to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four in Atlanta through a promotional sweepstakes put on by Sears Roebuck.

"I'm still pretty much in shock," Gaulding said. "I watch basketball, but I'm more of a baseball and football fan."

According to Gaulding, 31, every time she used her Sears credit card between March 1-16, her name was automatically entered into the sweepstakes along with countless others. She received the news that she won on Saturday.

"I was really excited," she said.

Gaulding, a graduate of Jackson High School and Southeast Missouri State University who works at Trane Heating & Air Conditioning, said she will receive $10,000 a year for 10 years. She will also be given spending money to take to the Final Four, which will be Saturday and Monday.

"I'm taking three friends and two of them are real basketball fans," she said.

The four will fly out of Cape Girardeau on Thursday and return Tuesday.