Stitchin' Post employee wins on variety show

Bend resident Cheryl Crawford has always been a huge fan of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and when her son Kyle in California told her he had VIP tickets for them to go see her favorite talk-variety show, Crawford was overjoyed.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres, first aired in 2003 and combines comedy, celebrity, musical guests and human-interest stories. The program often features audience-participation games where prizes are awarded.

"I was so excited to have the tickets for the show! My daughter Chelsea and I were going to fly down to California to meet Kyle and go see the show," Crawford said. "But the timing wasn't so great, because after Kyle received the tickets for the show, I became a new employee at the Stitchin' Post."

But her new employer understood and let her have that day off.

Crawford recently replaced Stitchin' Post employee Tamra Dumolt, cut goods coordinator, who is relocating to Washington in November. Crawford has been quilting on and off for 15 years and is now making quilting kits for the Sisters store.

Crawford and Chelsea arrived in Los Angeles to meet Kyle, who lives in Woodland Hills, on Thursday, October 20, and went directly to Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, where "Ellen" is produced.

"I was going on only two hours sleep because we had to catch the early plane to get there," Crawford said.

"After we arrived in the studio we waited on benches for the show to start," Crawford said. "Some of the staff came out and started talking to me, asking questions."

They asked Crawford if she was familiar with the games that Ellen does on her show. Being a fan, Crawford knows the games - including the new one.

Recently DeGeneres began playing a brand-new game on her show in which audience members get doused with water or dollar bills. In other words, Ellen gives some of her audience a chance to get wet or wealthy.

"Then the staff told me that if they were to pick me to please hug Ellen very gently because she has a bad back," Crawford said. "It could be because people may have hugged her too hard in all their excitement. And I was excited.

"My son said they'll pick me because I'm zany," Crawford said, giggling.

The staff sat the Crawfords in the middle of the audience near the aisle.

Crawford commented on an interesting detail that happens during the airing of the show.

"The audience dances the entire time in between the segments to rev everybody up. We stood and danced," she said laughing. "It was a real hoot."

It was toward the end of the show that DeGeneres gave some of her audience members a chance to get wet or wealthy, and Crawford and one other woman were called up on stage to play "Make It Rain."

Just seconds before that happened DeGeneres was up on stage and said "I have some good news and bad news; I am going to lose $10,000 today. And the good news is one of you is winning it."

"I was in shock. I didn't think they were going to pick me," Crawford told The Nugget.

But Crawford's daughter Chelsea had other ideas.

"I had the feeling they would pick her. My mom was perfect for the show," Chelsea said. "The whole thing felt surreal, and we were so excited for her when she was on stage."

When DeGeneres asked Crawford "Which one are you?" she answered, "Cheryl," laughing the entire time. Then when DeGeneres asked Crawford "And what do you do in Oregon? She managed to say "I work at the Stitchin' Post," in between laughs.

Which prompted DeGeneres to ask the giggling contestant "Are you high?" The entire audience was in stitches.

"I was so nervous and just got the giggles, and I was laughing so much because I was excited to be a part of the show."

DeGeneres then explained to the contestants that somewhere under all the umbrellas lay $10,000 and/or a whole lot of water.

DeGeneres began with trivia questions. And whoever answered correctly got to pick an umbrella to pull.

And the first question was "what are the two parts of a mimosa?"

Crawford quickly answered first by saying "Oranges" (only half the answer) and went to pull one of the umbrellas that hung above them. DeGeneres had to stop her since she didn't give a full answer. Crawford then answered, pulled an umbrella, and got doused with lots of water.

"I'm surprised I could even answer the questions," She said. "And the water was cold, but my adrenaline was going and I didn't notice.

"It was unreal to me when I finally pulled one of the umbrellas and money fell out all over me," Crawford added.

Crawford actually got doused with water three times, but the staff edited some out to keep the segment shorter for TV.

"Afterwards they swooped us off stage, gave us a robe to put on and we went to the green room. The staff gave us Ellen sweats and T-shirts. Then they came to get us and we went back into the audience in our sweats, that we got to keep," Crawford recalled.

"It was great. Ellen was super-nice and the staff was awesome."