Contest delivers Beaverton teacher expense-paid trip to Olympics

Deborah Harpine's husband was skeptical — to say the least — when she received a letter from McDonald’s saying she’d won a free trip to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

About a month had passed since the Beaverton special education teacher, prompted by a commercial she saw during the Winter Olympics, entered the online “How Do You McNugget?” contest, which tests general knowledge of Olympic athletes.

“My husband (Michael, whom she married two years ago) didn’t believe it,” Harpine says. “He thought it was a hoax: ‘They’re asking for all this information. I don’t think this is real.’ I said, ‘Well, I did enter!’”

A week later, when a picture that contest officials requested of her appeared on the company website, it began to sink in. With her name drawn from 5,000 eligible winners, she literally became the one person in the world McDonald’s would send to the London Olympics for a six-day, expenses-paid trip.

“I got a call. They said, ‘You won!’ and put my picture on their website,” she says, noting that swimming and gymnastics were her favorite Olympic events. “I was really excited.”

On Tuesday morning, two days before she and Michael were scheduled to fly to London from Portland International Airport, the excitement increased as the couple took McDonald’s-sponsored tour in a red PDX double-decker bus. Because the couple’s flight leaves in the wee hours on Thursday morning, it was agreed the bus ride should take place earlier.

With her parents, friends and other family members on board, Ronald McDonald himself sent the bus off following a “bon voyage” lunch at the new Hillsboro McDonald’s, 6399 N.W. Cornelius Pass Road.

The happy throng spent two hours of the sunny Tuesday snaking through downtown Portland, crossing Willamette River bridges and waving at passersby from the open-top deck.

“It was really wonderful,” says Harpine, 41, who’s taught special education with the Beaverton School District for 10 years and is at Vose Elementary School. “We took a two-hour trip and went into Portland, the Pearl District, crossed the Steel Bridge. It was my way of having everybody go with me because I can’t take everyone to London with me.”

Honeymoon in London

When it became known she and Michael had never had a proper honeymoon, McDonald’s officials went above and beyond the contest’s original offering. The restaurant giant provided a daily stipend for expenses and added two days to the trip so the couple could visit London landmarks.

“The found out about the honeymoon, so we can get couple extra nights at the motel,” she says. “We wanted be able go to Stonehenge, so they generously said we’ve got two extra nights. They’re also providing us with money to help pay taxes (on the costly contest gifts). They’ve been extremely generous.

“It’s always been something we’ve talked about,” she says of visiting Europe. “We travel a lot within the U.S., but being out of country is something neither of us ever thought would happen.”

With the London Olympics-based honeymoon secure, Deborah’s husband now sings a different tune about sweepstakes and contests.

“He would always say, ‘Oh, nobody ever wins those things. I don’t know why you’re entering.’ So I said, ‘OK, you can’t tell me that anymore.’

“Now he says, ‘Go ahead, enter!’ ”

Beaverton resident follows dad’s lead with new McDonald’s

For Beaverton resident Carl Armstrong, who opened the Cornelius Road McDonald’s — the first new Portland-area restaurant in 10 years — a month ago, having the Olympics contest presentation at his first franchise was a welcome treat.

“It’s been a real eye-opener,” the former McDonald’s manager and supervisor says of taking the ownership leap. “It’s given me a whole new appreciation of anybody who’s stepped out on that ledge.”

The site, he noted, used to be occupied by the Sweet Onion Grill and Larry’s Burger Joint, back in the 1940s and ‘50s.

“I pitched the location to McDonald’s (corporate),” he says. “I’m real passionate about the area.”

Armstrong, 38, said he still has job openings to augment the 57 he’s already hired.

“School is about to start, so we’re looking to open our availability,” he says.

Armstrong says he was inspired by his father, Don, who owns 13 McDonald’s restaurants in the area.

“He made me earn it,” Carl says.

Would he like to help dad take his senior years easier by running his nearby restaurants out of business?

“I would like to,” he says with a grin. “I’d send him down to Arizona to play some golf.”