Just a few minutes after 7:00pm on Saturday, April 23rd, Stasea Perry became the most popular man in town.
It started when a 7-year-old boy named Hunter Ernst donned a helmet and racecar driver’s uniform and stepped into a “money machine” frequently used as a game where lucky players get a chance at grabbing money as it blows all around the space that’s a little larger than a phone booth.
Except, this machine wasn’t blowing dollar bills, it was blowing ticket stubs, and one of them was going to give someone a 2022 Corvette C8.
Moments later, Stasea Perry, dressed in jeans, an OU shirt with the sleeves cut off and sporting a long beard and Crocs, made his way up to the stage for the main event at Saturday’s soft opening of the D-Luxe Properties food truck park, and as the announcer checked his ticket, he nervously ran his hands through his hair.
The winning number had just been called, and his ticket stub matched it.
When the confirmation came down, he hugged his girlfriend, surrounded by a cheering crowd as tears began to fill his eyes.
As he made his way up the steps to get the keys from Sapulpa Parks Board Member Pete Egan, he was speechless, until the keys dropped into his hand, and he stepped up to the microphone and asked a single question: “Hey Derek, can I do a burnout? Please?”
The crowd laughed. Derek Wachob, owner of D-Luxe Properties, later told Sapulpa Times that he was thrilled Perry’s number had been drawn. “He’s a great guy. He’s a customer, but he’s just a great guy who loves cars. I took him for a ride in a Ferrari and he loved it.”
After posing for photos and getting plenty of hugs and back-slaps, Perry made his way into the nearby D-Luxe dispensary to make a few phone calls. His first one was to his dad: “You are not going to believe what I’m about to tell you,” he exclaimed.
Officials said over 10,000 tickets were given out for the Corvette drawing.
The event might have only been a soft opening, but you wouldn’t have noticed by the size of the crowds
that gathered and stuck around.
Festivities included a car show, a showing off of the new food truck park, and the evening was topped of by a spectacular drone show.
The grand opening of the food truck park is said to be coming in just 120 days, according to sources at D-Luxe Properties. The finished park will include an amphitheater, restrooms, and a bridge connecting the park to the Kelly Lane Park, just across Rock Creek.
The Corvette giveway was an incentive to support the funding of a new splash pad at Kelly Lane Park, called “Splash 66.” Businesses and individuals who help fund the splash pad can have a paver with their name included in the final construction of the water park.
For more information on Splash 66, visit sapulpaparksfriends.com.
