Frank and Camille’s East, a renowned Long Island piano dealership, serving the tri-state area, recently celebrated 36 years of business by giving away a Kawai grand piano to a deserving family.
As part of the anniversary’s festivities, which took place at Frank and Camille’s Melville showroom and included a multi-day sale and live performances by acclaimed international concert pianists, the store raffled off a Kawai grand piano.
The grand prize winner, Garden City resident Fanny Escobar, will use the piano to help nurture her grandchildren’s love of playing the piano. Escobar’s daughter, Jackie Rodgers, of Commack is a mother of two children, ages 10 and 8, both of whom are avid pianists.
Unable to afford a brand-new piano and seeking to provide her children with an at-home outlet for expressing their musical creativity, Rodgers and her mother arrived at Frank and Camille’s through a strong recommendation, to inquire about purchasing a pre-owned piano – knowing that they could trade-up and receive full value towards a better piano some day.
While in the store, Escobar took notice of the raffle that would be taking place over the following weekend. Unable to resist the idea of winning a Kawai grand piano for her grandchildren, Escobar entered her name into the drawing and hoped for the best. Over the course of the days leading up to the raffle, Rodgers and Escobar, devout churchgoers, made extra visits to their house of worship to pray for a holiday miracle. Neither of the women was able to attend the anniversary celebration, where the winner of the Kawai grand piano was announced.
Rodgers called the store during the event to find out if they were the lucky winners. Much to their disappointment, they were told that someone had, in fact, won—but the store was unable to divulge the identity of the winner. Unbeknownst to Rodgers and Escobar, Camille Scheidemann, owner of Frank and Camille’s, had planned on reaching out to the winner the next day.
Scheidemann tried to reach Escobar at the number listed on the raffle, which was in fact Rodger’s home phone number, and had been unable to reach her. She even called 411 to inquire about an alternate number and was discouraged to learn that the number she had on file did not match the name on the raffle. Right before she was going to pull another name from the raffle drawing, she decided that it was worth one more shot to get in touch with Escobar.
When Rodgers picked up the phone, Scheidemann exclaimed, “Thank goodness I reached you.” Rodgers, who was almost immediately overcome with joyous tears, couldn’t believe she won the piano.
“You don’t understand what this means to me and my family,” she told Scheidemann. “My children are serious piano players, but we can only afford a pre-owned upright piano. My mother went to church on Sunday and prayed all day that we would win this piano for the children.”
Scheidemann is grateful to have had the opportunity to give the piano to a family that truly needed it.
“You can instantly tell in the way that she reacted when telling the story of how she and her mother won the piano that this beautiful instrument has found its way to the perfect home, just in time for the holidays,” she says.
For more information, visit Frank and Camille’s East website at www.frankandcamilleseast.com or call 631-385-0606.
This story was originally submitted to Huntington Patch by Matthew Rimi.
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