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Date: 5/15/2019
EAST LONGMEADOW – Wheel of Fortune is a game show thousands tune into across the country, but for East Longmeadow residents Pete Gillen, who is the Principal at West Springfield Middle School, and his wife Lynn Gillen, tuning in each week payed off big time.
The couple started watching the show to help their children with their spelling and work on their letter familiarity. Through this, the two realized they were getting very good at the show and started to enjoy playing it together.
While they were watching one day, the couple saw a commercial advertising auditions for the show would be held at Foxwoods Casino in June 2018. They decided to take a leap of faith.
“We said, ‘Why not?’ and decided to go to the auditions,” said Pete. “We weren’t expecting anything.”
The Gillen’s realized instantly that playing from the comfort of their couch at home was much different than playing in front of a camera crew on a stage, but they stayed level headed and made it to call backs for the next round of auditions.
“We auditioned individually but once they found out we were married, they called us back as a couple,” commented Pete.
The callbacks took place in August – they were even more intense. The questions were harder and there was a written test. After the callbacks the couple did not hear anything, so they put it on the backburner. Then, unexpectedly at the end of February, they received a call from Los Angeles letting them know they had made it and they wanted the couple on Wheel of Fortune.
Pete and Lynn told their children and family the exciting news and booked their flights out to L.A.
This was the couples first time traveling to the West Coast. The filming took place at the Sony Lot in L.A. They had to be there at 6 a.m. They went into hair and makeup first. The crew was filming six shows all at once so they were given the opportunity to meet many contestants. They were there for eight hours in order to get it all filmed.
“We knew around the middle of the show that we were in a good spot,” said Pete. “We knew at the prize puzzle if we kept control of the spin that we could win!”
And win they did.
The couple walked away with an all inclusive Disney Cruise to the Bahamas for their family and $15,737 in winnings.
“We filmed the episode in March and the episode didn’t air for six weeks,” said Pete. “Keeping that secret from our family and especially our kids was so difficult!”
Pete shared with Reminder Publishing that keeping the secret was worth it to see the reactions of everyone while they watched it. The couple held a small viewing party for their family and friends.
“Being able to watch our kid’s eyes light up as they realized we won was absolutely priceless!” commented Pete.
The couple is in the process of scheduling their Disney Cruise and cannot wait to go. The two were overwhelmed by the kindness of not only the crew and producers, but also the support from their community.