Forrest General Healthcare Foundation Win This Car! Fundraiser Won by Ellisville Man
Paul and Debby Rowell picked up the keys to their 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Friday as the winner of this year’s Forrest General Healthcare Foundation Win This Car! fundraiser. From left, Martha Dearman, Foundation executive director, Paul and Debby Rowell, Susan Sanders, Foundation assistant director.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (September 2, 2025) One ticket is all Paul Rowell of Ellisville needed to win this year’s Forrest General Healthcare Foundation Win This Car! raffle. Rowell’s name was drawn during a live broadcast on WDAM’s 6 pm news last Thursday night as the winner of a 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum.
This year’s fundraiser, which sold a record 2,321 tickets, netted $120,000 for the Foundation, which will benefit renovations and additions at Asbury Hospice House in Hattiesburg.
Rowell’s name was drawn by Foundation board chairman, Lou Mapp, as this year’s winner, as a small group of ticket holders waited anxiously in the showroom to hear if their ticket would be drawn. As soon as WDAM’s live broadcast of the announcement went off the air, Forrest General Health Foundation Executive Director, Martha Dearman, called Rowell, who answered almost immediately. He was not aware the drawing was that night and wasn’t quite sure he wasn’t being pranked. “As soon as I got off the phone with Ms. Dearman, we started getting calls and texts,” he said. And once someone posted, “Congratulations, Paul,” on Facebook, then people knew it was him and it became real.
Rowell said he has been purchasing a ticket for the raffle for five or six years once he receives information in the mail. “I mainly support this fundraiser because of Asbury Hospice House,” he said. “It’s for a good cause. While the couple has no immediate connections to Asbury Hospice, they have had family members and friends who have used hospice services, mainly at home. “I just think that hospice is an important thing, and they do a good job. They are the only place I know where you can have family coming in 24 hours a day. That’s not something most places will let you do. I think very highly of them.”
“Forrest General is where we go for everything,” his wife, Debby, added. “Again, it’s a local cause we feel is important to support.”
On Friday morning, the Powells met Dearman and Toyota dealership officials to sign paperwork and take possession of their new vehicle. Paul said although he purchased the winning ticket, Debby would be its new driver, as he was not getting rid of his truck.
Funds raised from the campaign will be used for continuing the work at the Asbury Hospice House. Asbury, located on 40th Avenue in Hattiesburg, offers a home-like setting where staff can address the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of each patient, and their family. This inpatient facility provides a comforting atmosphere where families can gather and prepare in dignity.
“After nine years with Asbury, we have identified some additional areas we need to address,” said Dearman. Those include a larger family area, a children’s activity area, an outdoor pavilion for special family occasions, and a larger onsite pharmacy.
“It’s ways we can help our patients and their families, which is so much a part of hospice care,” said Dearman. “I feel incredibly humbled by the overwhelming generosity and continued support of our community and Forrest General’s employees. We feel incredibly passionate about this initiative, and we’re glad to see the Hattiesburg community supporting it, as well.”
For more information about the Forrest General Healthcare Foundation and the current campaign, visit forresthealth.org/giving.
