Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Semifinalists in this year’s Daily Press Golden Ticket contest hold up their winning entry forms during an event held at Family Inn in Escanaba Tuesday. They are, from left, Katherine Henschel, 11, of Escanaba; Payton Moya, 12, of Escanaba; Layla Frizzell, 7, of Cornell; John Rivard, 11, of Cornell; Gus Rivard, 7, of Cornell; Joseph Rivard, 9, of Cornell; Todd Noel Jr., 7, of Escanaba; Alex Ison, 9, of Escanaba; Kinsley Williams, 7, of Escanaba; and Ethan Poe, 9, of Rapid River.

ESCANABA — The Family Inn in Escanaba was abuzz when the Daily Press’s 2018 Golden Ticket contest semi-finalists and their families gathered to find out who would win the grand prize Tuesday.

The grand prize winner for the Golden Ticket contest is Todd Noel Jr., 7, of Escanaba. He was selected the winner during the event at the Family Inn Tuesday, Jan. 8.

Daily Press Advertising Representative Holly Statum said the contest occurs every year and has been going on for quite some time.

“It’s a fun contest for kids to get the younger generation involved with reading the paper and learning about local businesses,” she said.

To enter the Golden Ticket contest, children between the ages of 7 and 12 searched issues of the Daily Press to find “peppermints” listing the names of participating advertisers. Once they found these names, they wrote them on their entry form.

Statum explained the peppermint advertisements ran periodically in the paper during November and December.

“This is an annual contest. During the months of November and December is when kids can start looking for the forms in the paper,” she said.

Before the event, 10 semifinalists were randomly selected to have the chance to win the grand prize. As the event began Tuesday, the semifinalists’ winning entry forms were randomly drawn from a box. This determined the order in which the children chose their gift bags, which were filled with lots of goodies for the kids to enjoy.

Each bag also included a box of M&Ms wrapped in tissue paper.

While most of these boxes contained plain M&Ms, one box — which was at the bottom of the gift bag chosen by Noel — had peanut M&Ms.

Noel said he knew the second bag in the row was lucky.

“That’s his favorite number,” Kari Noel, the grand prize winner’s mother, said.

As the grand prize winner, Todd Noel Jr. won a HP Stream Laptop. He said he plans on using it for games.

“I’m going to set it up and download my two favorite games on a laptop,” Noel said. “Brick Rigs and BeamNG.drive.”

He said he was excited to win and loved the color of the laptop, which was blue and just so happened to be his favorite color.

The other semifinalists in this year’s Golden Ticket contest included Payton Moya, 12, of Escanaba; Layla Frizzell, 7, of Cornell; Joseph Rivard, 9, of Cornell; Gus Rivard, 7, of Cornell; Ethan Poe, 9, of Rapid River; Katherine Henschel, 11, of Escanaba; Alex Ison, 9, of Escanaba; Kinsley Williams, 7, of Escanaba; and John Rivard, 11, of Cornell.

This year’s Golden Ticket contest was sponsored by Bellin Health, the Bishop Noa Home, Christian Park Health Care Center and Christian Park Village, Crawford Funeral Homes, Down to Earth Media, ECO Fuels and Gladstone’s Mobil, FedEx, Fish & Hunt Shop, Health Way Nutrition Center, Lakestate Industries, Limestone Federal Credit Union, Lisa Ann, Northern Trails Pet Resort, Pam’s Petals, Skradski Family Funeral Homes, T&T True Value Hardware and the Upper Peninsula State Bank.