Jordan Beck | Daily Press Jax Moya, 8, of Escanaba — the winner of the Daily Press’ 2019 Golden Ticket contest — holds up his entry form for the contest and a box of peanut M&M’s Monday. Each of the contest’s semifinalists chose a gift bag during an event held at UPutt Family Fun Center that day; only the grand prize-winning bag contained peanut M&M’s.

ESCANABA — The Daily Press’ 2019 Golden Ticket contest was won by Jax Moya, 8, of Escanaba. Moya was named the contest’s winner during an event held for semifinalists at UPutt Family Fun Center Monday afternoon.

“It was very successful again this year,” Daily Press Advertising Representative Sarah Maki said of the contest.

During the event, each semifinalist’s contest entry form was randomly selected. This determined the order that the children chose their gift bags in.

Along with a variety of small toys and other items, each gift bag included a box of M&M’s. While most of the boxes had milk chocolate M&M’s, the box included in the grand prize-winning bag had peanut M&M’s.

The bag containing the box of peanut M&M’s was chosen by Moya. Shortly after being named the Golden Ticket contest’s winner, Moya told the Daily Press he decided to submit his entry to the contest because he thought “it’d be fun.”

Originally, the grand prize for 2019’s contest was intended to be an HP laptop computer. Due to supply issues, however, Moya won an alternative prize.

“We got a really nice … JBL Pulse 3 Bluetooth speaker,” Daily Press Advertising Representative Holly Statum said.

Moya said he was excited to try out his new speaker.

“I’m gonna hook it up to my PlayStation,” he said.

Other semifinalists in this year’s Golden Ticket contest included Kinsley Williams, 8, of Escanaba; Brody Levesque, 11, of Gladstone; Katherine Henschel, 12, of Escanaba; Layla Frizzell, 8, of Cornell; Gracie Robinette, 11, of Escanaba; Dylan Paquin, 11, of Gladstone; Aaliyah Ness, 11, of Gladstone; Nolan Britton, 10, of Gladstone; and Taylor Tryan, 7, of Escanaba.

Don Martin, who co-owns UPutt along with his wife Vickie Martin, said he was happy to be involved with 2019’s Golden Ticket event.

“We’re super excited to be able to host it,” he said.

UPutt provided pizza to the semifinalists and their families at the event. Additionally, the business contributed to gift bags for the contest.

“We donated a free round of golf to each one of the semifinalists as a way of recognizing them,” Don said.

This year’s Golden Ticket contest was sponsored by A.M. Express, 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, Escanaba Downtown Partners in Business, FedEx, the Fish and Hunt Shop, Forefront Dermatology, Health Way Nutrition Center, Lakestate Industries, Lisa Ann, OSF HealthCare St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group, Skradski Family Funeral Homes, the Upper Peninsula State Bank and UPutt Family Fun Center.