Press Release Details

Blackout Story Winner

10/28/2003

Shortly after the nation's largest blackout hit states from Michigan to New York in August, Domino's Pizza asked its customers to submit stories telling what they did during in the darkness. The contest winner would earn $1,000 of Domino's Pizza gift certificates. Congratulations to Ellen Dominguez, whose story of spending time with her family was picked our winner.

As a single working mom, I often find it difficult to balance my career demands and the needs of my son. The morning of the blackout, I was ready to spend a day playing "catch up" at the office, having just finished some major projects. After all, who doesn't want to get rid of clutter?

I was just getting into the swing of things, when camp called to say that my son had taken ill. To be honest, I wasn't happy! But I left and took the subway to the neighborhood to where his camp is. We finally settled into home around 2 hours later. I had brought my computer home from work and while my son napped a bit in the bedroom, I continued catching up on my e-mail. Around 4:00 I took a break, and went to check on him. We were having a little chat when the lights and the a/c went off. We soon realized that this was a major black-out.

Being a recent cancer survivor, it would have been very difficult for me to get back to Brooklyn to pick my son up from camp and then make it home. God truly has a plan in mind for all of us and made sure that we were just where we needed to be — together and at home! My memory of the Blackout of 2003 will be that I was hugging my son when the lights went out!

Ellen Dominguez
Brooklyn, NY