An Oklahoman Won Mike Rowe’s Mercedes Sprinter Van

If you don't remember who Mike Rowe is, he was the host of an early-2000s TV show called Dirty Jobs. He was cast to show up at unimaginable "blue-collar" workplaces across the country to share in the dirty work that makes the country run smoothly. Not only was it hilarious and eye-opening to watch, but it was also a transformative experience for the host.

Having spent ten years completing some of the absolute dirtiest jobs in America, Mike realized the real disconnect between the needs of the American infrastructure and the unwillingness of the American youth to work these types of manual-labor jobs. It's a direct result of society convincing kids that they need a college education to get anywhere in life, a trend that really took off in the 1980s.

As more and more of this country's youth set down a path toward higher education, we've watched degree values continually shrink as the available workforce swells while blue-collar job demand and pay have soared. Even as the demand for manual labor grows, the supply of workers continues to dwindle, so Mike started a foundation in an attempt to close that skills gap.

The Mike Rowe Works Foundation has provided technical school training to over 1200 people since its founding in 2008, and the organization has no plan to slow down... provided they remain funded. That's where the free Mercedes van comes in.

In order to raise funds for the foundation, Mike Rowe Works Foundation gathered support in the shape of a decked-out Mercedes Sprinter RV to be given away by the charitable raffle website Omaze.

While a donation wasn't required to enter the contest, Omaze works by letting people earn extra entries through donations. By the time the contest concluded over $880,000 had been earned and given to Mike Rowe Works Foundation to continue putting American workers through trade schools across the country.

The lucky winner of this ferociously cool cross-country camper resides in Sperry, Oklahoma. A community on the smaller side located just outside of Tulsa. Given the size of Sperry, this will likely be the talk of the town for the next decade.