AUBURN – A Newry man beat the odds of FleetBoston Financial’s new eight-state quarterly sweepstakes Tuesday, winning a $20,000 certificate of deposit.

Nicholas Lambert and his wife, Julia Young, picked up his windfall Tuesday at the Fleet branch at 178 Court St.

Lambert, who was unavailable for comment, also won a financial planning review as part of the top prize.

Lambert’s name was drawn from a pool of 25,464 entries from the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Additionally, one entrant from each of the eight states won a first-place prize – a $3,000 certificate of deposit and a Money Management Check-Up – in Fleet’s “Smarter Decisions with Fleet Sweepstakes.”

The financial planning award is a one-on-one review to help consumers better manage their money, said community relations manager Cary Olson in Portland.

Calvin Peters of Kittery won the $3,000 first-place award for Maine, which will be presented Friday.

The sweepstakes was held in the fourth quarter of 2003, from Sept. 25 to Nov. 6. It was part of Fleet’s $30 million back-to-basics financial education initiative.

Smarter Decisions with Fleet is an educational effort that grew out of the need to help consumers make better financial decisions in an increasingly complex financial world, Olson said.

Another sweepstakes will be conducted in February.

Olson said Smarter Decisions with Fleet supports a comprehensive 10-point program – including educational materials, research, grants, seminars, partnerships and training – that addresses the growing national concern about inadequate financial understanding in America.

“The pressing need for more financial understanding has become a crucial public policy issue in America,” Olson said.

“More and more top news stories focus on pension fund crises, equity market losses, rising health care costs, record high consumer debt levels, and home foreclosures,” she added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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