Woman makes job out of entering contests

PALM HARBOR - Christine O'Leary has two jobs. She says she works all the time.

But she also wins all the time.

"I've won jewelry, expensive watches, gift cards for shoes and gas, and trips," says 38-year-old O'Leary, a cash accountant and fitness instructor from Palm Harbor.

She's won five trips to New York City, including a stay at a luxury spa suite.

"It's like the suite only celebrities would stay in," says O'Leary.

Most of her winnings have come from contests she's entered on the Internet. She spends an hour every night at her computer surfing various contest sites. She says it's her hobby.

"At the end of a long day I get in my sweats, I get in front of the computer, and I just enter contests," she said

O'Leary says her only secret to winning is consistency. She enters about 50 contests every night, she said.

Her most recent big prize came last January. She won a contest from Parade Magazine to attend the Producers Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

"We met Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks was there, Ron Howard was there ... Catherine Zeta Jones," she said.

O'Leary won her first contest in 1995. It was a radio essay contest. The prize was the chance to propose to her now husband, Dan, on the field.

"At halftime, we went down there in front of all the people. And I got down on one knee and asked him to marry me," said O'Leary.

He said yes, and she's been a winner ever since.

Her favorite prize came from another radio contest. She wrote an essay on why she would like plastic surgery.

"And they called my husband and said 'your wife won a nose job'," O'Leary said. "I always wanted a nose job."

O'Leary says she's given many of her winnings to family members as gifts.

"We don't like to brag when we come on good fortune," she said. "We just like to share it."