Winner on ‘Oprah’ gives car to mom |

Winner on ‘Oprah’ gives car to mom

Kelly Tracer

They say it is better to give than to receive, and that is exactly what Kacey Purifoy did when she won a new car on her 27th birthday on Sept. 29.

Purifoy was thrilled enough when she found out she was going to attend the television taping of the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in Chicago.

“I’ve been a big Oprah fan for years, like every other woman in America,” Purifoy said.

After submitting an application essay for tickets online, Purifoy got a call from the producers. She was not told what the show would be about, but that it would have a twist. Little did the producers know that after the show ended, Purifoy would add a little twist of her own.

When she arrived at the studio, she noticed a big white tarp over the parking lot and saw photographers and security guards all around.

“I could tell something big would happen,” She said.

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Oprah brought a handful of people onto the stage and gave them new cars. Then she said someone in the audience would also win one.

Little white presents, tied up with red ribbon, were distributed to everyone in the crowd, all to be opened at the same time.

Purifoy said she was shocked when a woman sitting at the end of the front row, the same row Purifoy was in, pulled a key out of the box. Then, to Purifoy’s surprise, she also found a key in her present. She soon realized that all 276 people in the audience held a key to a new Pontiac G6.

Purifoy said that, because she lives in Chicago and doesn’t drive very much, she decided to give her car to her mother, Kathy Nelson-Purifoy of Fort Lupton.

Nelson-Purifoy commutes to her job as a probation officer in Denver daily. In the evenings, she holds two other part-time jobs. She recently told her father she would need a new car soon because she has 100,000 miles on hers.

“I can’t believe it,” Nelson-Purifoy said. “I’ve never even won a buck from a lotto ticket before. I don’t know how many kids would do something like this.”

Purifoy’s parents are divorced; her father owns the Purifoy Chevrolet dealership in Fort Lupton. Nelson-Purifoy has never had a new car and has never had anything but a Chevy. She will receive her new car in December or January.

“My mom just does so much for everyone,” Kacey said. “My mom has given me the world, and it is so nice to be able to give something back to her.”

The program aired on Monday.