Jerome Montgomery of Dayton won an Orlando, Florida vacation makeover.

By RHONDA CROWDER

Staff Reporter

Guess you could call Jerome Montgomery, of Dayton, lucky.

Earlier this summer, he won a vacation makeover that sent him and his family on a trip to sunny Orlando, Florida. He recently explained to the Call and Post how he did it.

“I do so many contests,” said Montgomery. “Was doing the Regis and Kelley contest and on the bottom of their website I saw ‘vacation makeover.’”

Sponsored by Visit Orlando, Montgomery had to tell them about his last vacation to be considered in the running for the prize.

“My last family vacation was when I was five. My dad took us to Florida,” he explained. “I have been places by myself but not as a family, while my mom hasn’t been anywhere since then.”

Because Montgomery is a single father with his mother and other family members helping with his children, he wanted to be able to do something for his mother. Montgomery, 32, is the father of three children, having full custody of two since they were about a month old. Their mom is in the military. Now, they are 7 and 8 years old and his youngest is 4. The 4-year old lives with his mother and was unable to attend.

“I wanted it to be me, my mom, and my kids,” he said. “We spent 6 nights and 7 days. They took real good care of us out there. We had a ball every single day.”

The vacation included an all-expense paid trip with roundtrip airfare from Dayton to Orlando, a fully equipped three bedroom villa, a rental car, at least 7 attractions including Disney World and Sea World, indoor skydiving, and themed dinners, such as a Pirate Adventure.

“The dinners were amazing. They were not typical dinners. The children loved it, especially the dinosaurs. They were really smiling the whole time,” exclaimes Montgomery, who works as an inspector, and said he would not have been able to afford the experience for his family.

Also, we call Montgomery lucky because, in addition to all of this, he won the BET ultimate fan contest last year and a BET Awards viewing party this year that was Skyped during their after party broadcast.

When asked what his secret to winning contests is, he said, “I’m thinking. I don’t know. Growing up, I never won anything. I say the good Lord. He’s rewarding me. So many times, I wanted to give up. This is what happens when you don’t give up,” he said.

And, he likes the fact that it shows their kids to never give up.

It also encourages him to continuing pursuing his goals.