MINOT – Dan Cunliffe II is used to winning.

Over the last two years he’s won a makeover for his store, Republic Jewelry in Auburn. He won $5,000 as part of an American Idol video contest and he landed a free trip to baseball’s 2006 All-Star game as Chevy’s No. 1 Fan. He’s been a finalist, a runner-up, a third-place victor.

“I’m blessed, I guess,” he said.

But Cunliffe’s most recent win was extraordinary even for him.

On Friday he won $10,000 from the National Sunflower Association for a 30-second homemade video promoting sunflower seeds.

And he’s giving every penny away.

“When I called him this morning to tell him he’s won, he was stunned,” said John Sandbakken, marketing director for the National Sunflower Association. “When he told me what he was going to do with the money, I was stunned.”

Cunliffe, a father of four, will donate the prize money to the Minot-Hebron Athletic Association to build ball fields for kids. Because his three oldest children play baseball and softball in town, he knows firsthand how bad the current ball fields are. He figured $10,000 could help.

“I think we’ve been using somebody’s farm land to play soccer,” he said. “It’s so hard to raise money.”

Cunliffe, 40, has been entering contests for the last couple of years. Most ask contestants to create short videos around a theme or a product.

“I really enjoy doing them. I like being creative and competitive,” he said.

Cunliffe learned about the National Sunflower Association’s contest several weeks ago. Contestants had to create a short video promoting sunflower seeds and using the slogan “Grab ’em by the sack.” Each week, the top vote-getting videos became finalists.

Cunliffe shot his first sunflower seeds video on his front lawn. It showed his four kids failing to catch a baseball, then succeeding in catching sacks of sunflower seeds.

The video shot to No. 1, earning the most votes that week and capturing a coveted spot as a finalist.

Cunliffe then shot a second video using a bunch of the town’s young athletes. If that second video won, he decided, he’d give the prize money to the athletic league.

“I said it’ll be really cool. Let’s do a whole team one,” he said.

But the second video floundered. It got a quarter of the votes the others did and someone else won that week to became a finalist.

Cunliffe decided to donate the prize money anyway if his first video won the grand prize.

“It’s a really good cause,” he said.

To help boost his chances, Cunliffe built a Web site, www.voteforminot.com. Schoolchildren brought home fliers about the project and community members urged each other to vote for the hometown video.

Still, Cunliffe wasn’t sure it would be enough.

“I thought if I can pull this off it’ll be such a miracle,” he said.

Fifty-five videos were submitted to the contest. Thirteen became finalists and were viewed 115,000 times during the week of grand-prize voting.

On Friday, Sandbakken from the National Sunflower Association called to tell Cunliffe his video won.

“I said, ‘C’mon, you guys are joking, right?’ ” Cunliffe said.

Word of the win spread fast.

“It’s pretty awesome. It’s huge for us,” said Wendy Simard, treasurer for the Minot-Hebron Athletic Association. “That $10,000 is more than we have in the account right now.”

The association recently built a new soccer field and has plans to build separate baseball and softball fields. Volunteers helped with the work and Minot helped with funding. But the association still needs to do road work, put up fencing and lighting, and construct bleachers.

“There’s so much that can be done with this money,” Simard said.

Cunliffe is expected to receive the prize money in the next week or two.

Although the National Sunflower Association win was Cunliffe’s biggest surprise recently, it wasn’t his only one of late. Several days ago he also got third place in a 30-second video contest for a toy company. The prize: $500.

Cunliffe gave most of that money away, too. He sent it to his favorite nonprofit radio station.

“This was a good week,” he said.