BANGOR, Maine — A father of three Saturday won a gas grill during a Father’s Day contest sponsored by a local radio station, and then gave it to a fellow contestant.
Stephen Treadwell, 46, of Carmel beat out four other dads by assembling a gas grill in 90 minutes, faster than any other father. After posing for pictures with staff from WHCF-FM, a Christian radio station, and workers at Aubuchon Hardware, Treadwell gave the Char-Broil grill to Andrew Teasdale, 24, of Glenburn.
“God has really blessed my family,” Treadwell told Joe Polek, promotions director for the radio station as he turned the grill over to Teasdale, the father of a 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter.
Teasdale’s wife, Brooke Teasdale, 22, wiped tears from her eyes as she balanced their daughter, Esther, on her hip.
“I feel so blessed,” she said, when asked her reaction to the unexpected gift.
Have you ever assembled a gas grill?
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Polek said he too was surprised and touched that one contestant would work so hard to win, then give away his prize.
“I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “I sure didn’t expect that.”
The radio station, located next to Bangor Baptist Church on outer Broadway, teamed up with the hardware store for the contest, according to store Manager Deron Whittemore. Staff picked the model that had the most pieces and required the most assembly. The gas grill the contestants assembled retails for $219.99, the manager said.
Treadwell came to the hardware store Saturday morning with his 77-year-old father, Bob Treadwell of Veazie. The winner did not know the contest was going on, and the elder Treadwell put his son’s name in a box as a possible “wild card” entrant.
The winner admitted that putting the grill together had been challenging.
“It had a lot of little pieces that had to be screwed together,” he said.
Treadwell admitted after the contest that as the mechanical supervisor at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor he has “had a lot of practice taking things apart and putting them back together.”
The winning dad said that his children are 22, 17 and 15.
Treadwell was one of two contestants who entered the contest as “wild cards.” The other three, including Teasdale, were nominated for the contest by family members who had to explain why their father was a good dad.
Brooke Teasdale nominated her husband.
“If Elisa [age 2] and Esther were able to write this, they would say that their daddy is their hero,” she wrote in her essay on behalf of her children.
After Saturday, another of their heroes just might be the guy who put a barbecue grill together just a bit faster than their dad could.