ENID — Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse completed a 10-month fundraising campaign yesterday by giving one surprised woman a new car.

Leonardo’s began selling tickets for the new car giveaway last November, and the drawing was held after the Cherokee Strip Celebration Parade Saturday.

“It seems unbelievable that the time is already here,” said Leonardo’s executive director Julie Baird before the drawing. “We started selling raffle tickets on Nov. 16 and 10 months seemed so far away.”

Baird and other Leonardo’s board members and volunteers still were scrambling to sell as many raffle tickets as they could yesterday morning, walking the parade route and selling $10 tickets person-to-person.

The raffle entitled the winner to a $20,000 new car or $20,000 toward any new car on the lot at Northcutt Chevrolet-Buick-Toyota.

The last minute ticket sales paid off, Baird said. Organizers had sold more than 1,600 tickets by mid-week, and by the time of the drawing, they had more than 2,000 ticket stubs in the hopper. That raised the fundraising total to more than $20,000.

A small crowd gathered for the drawing at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot outside Adventure Quest, Leonardo’s large outdoor play area.

When the winning ticket was drawn, it bore the name of Sherrill Burlie of Wakita. Burlie was not present at the drawing, but contestants were not required to be present to win. Baird called Burlie and left her a voice mail message, telling her simply “you’ve won a new car.”

Burlie called back a few minutes later, alternating between laughing and being nearly speechless.

“I never really win anything,” Burlie said. “In fact, this may be about the only thing I’ve ever won. I’m just really excited about this.”

Burlie said she bought the ticket for the drawing on a whim while getting an oil change at Northcutt. “I saw they were going to have the drawing, and I just thought ‘I’ll buy one ticket just in case.’ I just thought it would be exciting to win a new car ... and now I am excited.”

Burlie stated she’s not sure what kind of car she will choose, but she’s excited about exploring her options. “I guess I’ll have to go look and see what they’ve got there ... it’s just exciting,” she concluded with a laugh.

Baird also was excited about the results of the drawing. The process began more than a year ago with the dual objective of celebrating the nonprofit children’s museum’s 16th birthday and raising money to support planned renovations.

“We just started dreaming one day last year,” Baird said, “and I finally asked, ‘What does every 16-year-old want?’ ... A new car, of course.”

Baird said Dan Smith, a Leonardo’s board member and general manager of KOFM 103.1, stepped in to make the car giveaway idea a reality.

“He was really concerned because we have so many needs for the building we can’t afford,” Baird said.

Smith said he was interested in arranging the fundraiser because Leonardo’s is well-used by the Enid community, and it is in need of maintenance and renovation.

He was particularly focused on the Adventure Quest play area, which welcomed its one millionth child visitor last August.

“We’ve been trying to work on Adventure Quest, and we don’t have the funds to do the repairs, or even just the upkeep that we need,” Smith said.

He said the car giveaway fundraiser will help with renovations, and it was made possible by community support and corporate generosity.

Northcutt donated 100 percent of the cost of the vehicle and Williams Broadcasting, parent company of KGWA 93 AM and KOFM 103.1 FM,  stepped in as a corporate sponsor with free marketing. PDQ Printing volunteered to print the raffle tickets free of charge.

Baird said the result of that generosity was Leonardo’s pulled off the $20,000 car giveaway with no overhead cost.

“We were out no expense for the campaign,” Baird said. “It’s just wonderful for Leonardo’s because 100 percent of that money will go to our renovation project.”

Baird said Leonardo’s is in “the very early planning stages” of a proposed $7.5 million to $8 million renovation project that will include moving the museum entrance to Maple, expanding its exhibit space, adding new exhibits, upgrading facilities and providing an endowment for maintenance and upkeep.

For more information on Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse and Adventure Quest, go to the museum’s website at www.leonardos.org or call  233-2787.