Caymanian woman wins CI$100k vaccine draw

| 22/11/2021 | 83 Comments
Dawn Bodden, winner of the DMS prize draw, with Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, Adrienne Politowicz from DMS and Premier Wayne Panton

(CNS): Dawn Bodden, an executive with KPMG, has won the CI$100,000 vaccine prize draw sponsored by DMS. Bodden was handed her surprise giant cheque during a televised presentation on CIGTV Monday. Bodden said she had been invited to the GIS studio as a finalist but she had no idea she had won the big prize.

Bodden was one of over 53,000 people who were all entered into the prize draw by getting both vaccine shots or persuading someone else to do so. Adrienne Politowicz, spokesperson for the DMS Vaccine Drive shared a brief timeline of the vaccine process.

The DMS Vaccine Drive was first announced on 6 August, offering a grand prize drawing of $100,000 to a single recipient. Anyone who was Caymanian, a permanent resident or legally resident with a valid work permit and had been fully vaccinated through the Health Services Authority (HSA) were eligible and automatically entered into the drawing.

In addition, anyone who referred a loved one and submitted a completed referral card into a dropbox at the HSA Vaccine Clinics received an additional entry.

The drawing ended on 14 October, with a total of 53,595 eligible entries. 53,365 people had received the full course two-dose vaccination and 230 people received additional entries through the referral program. The HSA provided the verification of the full vaccination and finalist consent to participate in the drawing. DMS conducted the verification of the proof of residency and proof of address. A winner was then randomly drawn.

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan announced the winner on Monday.

See the prize draw on CIGTV YouTube below:


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Comments (83)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Geeze! People are becoming more and more whiny!
    Don Seymour’s money. Don’s rules.
    Don’t like it? Okay…become wealthy and run your own lottery. Problem solved.

  2. Anonymous says:

    the draw could have been done live since based on the narrative it was HSA who did the “draw” and then checked with her if she consented to DMS getting her information.

    From the raffle was announced and it was said “all persons who got vaccinated before would be entered in the raffle”, there was no need to “certify” that the winner was vaccinated as its based on HSA’s vaccination records.

    In this society where there are so many divisions and the xenophobic rants, and the anti-expat / anti-driftwood sentiments, the drawing ought to have been done live, and you call the winner.

  3. Anonymous says:

    WOW Dawn! So jealous … congrats.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Should have done 10 prizes x $10,000

  5. Anonymous says:

    Finalist? For a randomly selected drawing?

    Mmm.

    • Anonymous says:

      My thoughts exactly. How were these finalists selected?

      • Spoken Truth says:

        We all know there was a ploy behind it all….”Or persuading someone else to get vaccinated”, had to make sure that ppl who got jabbed before the competition came into play, would have a chance at winning. Aaahh, the wondrous workings of our Government with their scheme….hahahahaha!!

    • Anonymous says:

      I never heard that one either in all the media hype for the competition….only heard get yourself jabbed to enter the raffle draw for $100,000….no where did I heard that you could persuade someone else to do so or be entered to become “a finalist”. Never transparent or honest with these Politicians!!

      CNS: You weren’t paying attention. It’s stated clearly in this CNS article. Don’t blame others for your own shortcomings.

  6. Anonymous says:

    If you’re an expat or contact civil servant you will never win a raffle in Cayman

    • Anonymous says:

      aww 🙁 pity
      so sad….

      ….

      get over it lmao

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes the clue was in the name. If you didn’t have the right name, your winning entry was thrown away until they got the right one.

    • Anonymous says:

      Rubbish. I’m an expat & have won several raffle prizes.

    • Anonymous says:

      Not true.
      I won a car back in the 90’s at Taste of Cayman

    • Anonymous says:

      You already won the lottery by getting your work permit approved.

      Stop peddling your anti-Caymanian garbage. Borders are open. You are free to book a flight back home to buy a raffle or lottery ticket over there.

      Once you are back home and you’ve settled in with your lottery ticket clutched firmly in hand, come back to this CNS comment and let me know how you and the laws of probability are getting on together.

      People like you are just unfunny, predictable, unimpressive, and just extraordinarily mediocre.

      As a Caymanian, I like you as much as you like me. I do unto you and you do on to me. I think about you, the same way you think about me.

      So our distaste for each other (ex-pat vs Caymanian) is mutual.

      The only difference is… I didn’t leave my country to come to yours to make complaints and racist statements on a local news outlet. CNS’s comments section has become a sounding board for your kind.

      I didn’t agree with this raffle, but your comment shows that there are ex-pats here that don’t even want a Caymanian to win in a game of chance, let alone be given an opportunity. Because people like you think you are better than us.

      Let the woman live and be happy with what she won. You probably would have found a reason to fire or not hire her just because she’s Caymanian. Now she won money and you complain that ex-pats can’t win anything.

      STFU – just – S-T-F-UPPPPPPPPPP!

  7. Anonymous says:

    LMAOOO im dying laughing at all the jealous comments because you didnt win. lmaoo you all so upset with the drawing or with the prize itself or with who actually won or their name or their profession lmaoooo like jeez yea sure we all wanna sin money but damn lmao your bitter comments arent filling up your bank account dears.

  8. Boy George says:

    why all these fully vaccinated folks wearing mask around each other? why was there finalist? why government taking photo opps from a private sector funded initiative? Kenneth and Wayne looking like this is their last go round! This whole thing reeks and makes zero sense to the sensible. Mandate vaccines and mandate mask? tell me the sense in that

    • Man George says:

      I can help you here, sir. Vaccine does not prevent you catching or spreading Covid (although it vastly reduces your viral load so you are less likely to spread it), but drastically reduces the impact of Covid on you and symptoms last for a much shorter time (so again, you are not spreading it for as long). Masks reduce the amount of aerosol you are spraying into the air and reduces the amount of aerosol you are breathing in. Covid cannot fly on its own, it rides on tiny drops of moisture in the air.

      Both together are a much more efficient way of handling it.

  9. Anonymous says:

    ‘DMS conducted the verification of the proof of residency and proof of address.’ Isn’t there something wrong with this?

  10. Anonymous says:

    Congrats to Ms. Bodden and thank God a Caymanian won it. Which is the way it should be with all things here in Cayman. Caymanians should be first and foremost with everything here.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Thank you, Don Seymour. That was an awesome gesture!

  12. Anonymous says:

    Absolutely insane that people had to be enticed to take the vaccination with a cash raffle. When there are so many people all around the world that would do anything to get vaccinated. Lives of the privileged very sad.

  13. Anonymous says:

    A caymanian was always going to win this

  14. Anonymous says:

    If this was done by DMS, a privately owned company, why are Minister of Tourism and Premier involved, what does this have to do with tourism? Why was the draw not shown live over the weekend? Who else was ‘invited as a finalist’? All this is legal now bcos covered by a private company – who does the boss of DMS vote for?

  15. Anonymous says:

    What’s the chances eh?

  16. Anonymous says:

    Should have been 53000 people there as finalists if it was a drawing. How the hell do they narrow it down to a certain few who are finalists???? I call bullsh*t on the whole thing.

    • Anonymous says:

      @8:54 They didn’t have any other finalists other than her ..They told her she was one of the finalist in order to have her show up at the press conference..There was only one finalist there.. You are making more of this than necessary.

      • Anonymous says:

        There were other finalists.

        • Anonymous says:

          For, what, a second raffle among just the finalists? What people are getting at here is that if this is pure chance, why is there anyone involved other than the winner of that one chance?

      • Anonymous says:

        Hogwash – it was stated that publicity would be involved, so that would have been expcted, and if somebody was told they had won 100,000 they would not need enticing to collect. Keeping it as a surprise to have her show up at press conference …

  17. abc@abc.com says:

    Can you imagine an ex pat getting this prize? No, I cannot either. The politics just would not follow through.

  18. Anonymous says:

    Should have been 10, 10,000 dollar prizes or even 20, 5,000 . Of course not everything are right and common sense are not common any more.

    • Anonymous says:

      I totally agree with 7:13pm that it should have been 10, 10,000.00 dollar prizes or even 20, 5,000.00. It should have been distributed differently and not making one individual win the entire jackpot. It is p*** poor that one individual scooped the entire jackpot but then again it’s up to the sponsor on how they want it done.

      We were all in this together and it’s unfair to others that went to get Vaccinated from the onset. It took a Raffle to encourage others to get Vaccinated in order to get their names entered in the drawing. The drawing should have been done like what the Rotary Club use to do years ago by putting all the names in a big barrel/Bowl and the one name should have either been pulled on live TV by either the Premier or Mr. Bryan.
      Oh well we cannot change what has already taken place but with so many local families in need right now it would have made a lot more families have a better Christmas with more money in their pockets to feed their families.

      Caymanians/Expat Community we need to start giving more of what we have all reaped from this beautiful Island and give to those in need. You cannot take none of it with you when you leave this life.

      I will leave you with words I read in an article by the Actor Denzil Washington. Give what you can now because when you leave this world there will be no UHAUL behind your Hearse. You cannot take take it with you.

      • Anonymous says:

        I believe Don Seymour can do whatever he likes with his money. It is not for you or I to tell him what to do and how to award the funds. It is his company and not Governments.

        This was DMS (private company) doing this not Government. Kenneth should have no part in how it is awarded.

        Thank you Don Seymour for doing this for Cayman. Too many ungrateful people in Cayman so my apologies.

        CNS: I changed Dwayne to Don. That’s who you meant.

    • Anonymous says:

      The prize was given unsolicited by a donor. It is up to the donor to determine how their gift is disseminated.

      Why don’t you put up $5,000 for another prize?

      Pathetic, ungrateful comment.

  19. Anonymous says:

    The raffle drawing must have been conducted during the live event during which a winner is announced.

  20. Anonymous says:

    I wonder how many redraws until they got a ‘correct’ name.

  21. Anonymous says:

    Were DMS provided with
    a government database of all those that took the vaccine?

    I would have thought that personal information would be confidential.

  22. Anonymous says:

    Strange drawing – finalists and apparently no live draw.

    • Anonymous says:

      That is what I thought.

    • Anonymous says:

      Kenneth did the integrity check lol strange how the woman met met all the key demographic targets, GT Voter, female, single parent, two daughters, hard worker, no criminal history, humble.

      I think she really deserved it, but lets hope it was all up to chance and not Kenneth

  23. Anonymous says:

    Shock – was never gonna be an expat was it in reality folks – yep we’ll just put that name back into the hat, who independently moderated the draw? “Automatically entered” – my 12 year old daughter wasn’t automatically entered to my knowledge.

  24. joeblogs says:

    ”executive”…the richer get richer. Sods Law.

    • Not Sod says:

      1) Her job title is “Executive assistant”, so I doubt that she’s very rich;
      2) This draw was open to anyone who got the shot so there was always a possibility of a wealthy person winning it.

      I say congratulations Ms. Bodden on winning.
      If there is anything to be questioned it’s the selection process and its oversight, but I don’t think the winner deserves any criticism.

      • Anonymous says:

        5:07 pm, don’t you think she lots and lots richer than many, Many other people. So why say she only executive assistant ? Anyway congrats to her and wish her all the best. But i still think it would been better to have had 20, 5,000 prizes to help out more people in these hard times and christmas coming.

  25. Anonymous says:

    Invited as a finalist…?

    • Anonymous says:

      @2:32 You are making more of this than necessary.They didn’t have any other finalists other than her ..They told her she was one of the finalist in order to have her show up at the press conference..There was only one finalist there..

  26. What a waste of $ says:

    Lucky for here but this whole thing is still beyond stupid.

    Everyone knows a free Whopper was more than enough….

  27. Anonymous says:

    What about all the other people that went ahead and got their shots as soon as they was available, they are the good guys.
    Others had to be giving a chance to win big money to get theirs shots. I though gambling was against the law in Cayman. If i am wrong, someone please correct me. Thanks

    • Anonymous says:

      Every single person that was fully vaccinated was automatically included in the draw. You too!
      And if your name was obviously Caymanian, you had an even better chance to win. (like ALL the drawings here in Cayman)

  28. Anonymous says:

    Politricks

  29. Anonymous says:

    Many congratulations to Dawn on her possession of an obviously Caymanian name

  30. Anonymous says:

    So gambling is legal now then?

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