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By Lloyd Mackey
 SINCE CHILDHOOD, Lori Bicknell has enjoyed watching TV game shows.
“We grew up in a family playing games,” she told BCCN. “My grandmother started me on word games by playing Scrabble with me for hours on
end. That is one of my greatest childhood memories. Wheel of Fortune is one of my favourite television game shows.”
Her childhood enthusiasm eventually bore fruit well into adulthood, when she was
able to become a contestant on Wheel. She won $6,800 shortly before Christmas, on a show that aired March 8.
A resident of Kamloops, Bicknell is the mother of two grown children, Kaisha and
James. Her husband Harry is senior pastor at Summit Drive Baptist Church, a
multi-staff church of about 600.
The journey to her brush with Fortune fame began four years ago when the Bicknells were vacationing in Tacoma. (Lori
and Harry had met there, when they were studying at Seattle Pacific
University).
Lori participated in an audition involving several thousand wannabe contestants,
being put through their paces by look-alikes of Vanna White and Pat Sajak.
About 100 actually won slots on a real future show. Lori was not among them.
In January, 2009, she received an email saying there would be an audition in
Vancouver. This was around the time when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
started running Wheel, and the show was looking for extra Canadian exposure.
Lori made the cut this time, and later received a call confirming she would be
on a show to be taped in December, at Disneyland. All four Bicknells were able
to attend.
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Writing in the Summit Drive Church newsletter, Bicknell recalled: “At 7:15 am on December 10 . . . the contestants were taken to Sony Studios. For the next four hours we were instructed as to the rules of the game, signed
papers, given a tour of the set, practiced spinning the wheel, taped promos for
our local television stations, reminded of all the different puzzle categories,
coached to speak loudly and to watch the letter board, not to concentrate on
the wheel but focus on the puzzle, sent to makeup, and hyped – hyped – hyped!”
On camera, she was positioned next to Pat Sajak. And she recalled that, even
after years of watching the show and hours of practicing, “[when] they put those devices in your hands it becomes a different game.”
Bicknell guessed one word wrong on one of the puzzles. But then she won three – including, ironically, one in the ‘What are you doing?’ category whose answer contained the words “reading my horoscope.” (Note to the uninitiated: Baptists are not supposed to read horoscopes.)
Bicknell said, in retrospect: “I have such empathy now as I watch the players. I used to think ‘how did they miss that?’ There is so much hype before and during the show, and so many things to
remember, it is easy to make silly mistakes.
“But . . . I was very happy with my winnings.”
And she is grateful for the opportunity, and the experience.
“I was happy to have had this vacation with my family. And we love Disneyland!”
On a personal note: I came across this story by serendipity. On March 9, my wife
Edna and I were enjoying our nightly custom of dessert accompanied by Wheel of
Fortune.
Contestant Lori Bicknell jogged our memory. Harry had been associate pastor at
Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Surrey, when we attended there 15 years ago. The
Bicknells moved a short time later to Kamloops.
April 2010
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