ELLENVILLE – Christine Roman of Ellenville had been a customer at Dunkin' Donuts for a very long time. "I had always thought about different flavored donuts. I used to think it would be great if they had this or that flavor."

Then came the Dunkin' Donuts nationwide "Create Dunkin's Next Donut" contest.

"I saw the contest, but I didn't enter at first, because I thought there'd be a million entries. But then I thought about it some more, and I thought, 'What the heck,' and I decided to give it a try. I thought that I had some good ideas about this, so I went online. You had to pick from preapproved ingredients from the company. Now, I think banana is a great flavor, and it hadn't been done. And chocolate, coconut, and banana go together really well."

However, at Christine Roman's house, great minds think alike. "I have to admit, I had help. I did it with my children, as a family project. We thought it would be a lot of fun putting our heads together on this. We came up with some crazy names. Anyway, my daughter is in Ellenville Middle School, an honor student. Her friends are a really good group of kids and they have a great sense of humor. For a few weeks they were using the word "bodacious" a lot. It was the code word of the month. So we were sitting there, thinking about bananas and it just matched up perfectly with bodacious."

And thus was born the Bodacious Banana.

Of course, Christine had her doubts. "We didn't think we could actually win. We knew there'd be zillions of entries. The entry date was April 7, and I kept looking in the store for the new donut, expecting someone else to have won, and then three weeks later, out of the blue, came the call, at 5 p.m. on a Friday."

So what happens now?

"Well, people can go to Dunkin' Donuts' web site, click on the contest promotion and go to vote on which of the finalists they like most. People can vote once a day up to May 27.

"We're going to Massachusetts to meet the head bakers of Dunkin' Donuts, get a tour of their bakery there, and then we have a special dinner on the first night. The next day we are going to make my donut and the judges will select a winner. They may not announce it right then, though — it could take a week to find out. The grand prize is $12,000. All the finalists win a year's supply of donuts and $1,200."

Leaving the best for last, what makes a Bodacious Banana?

"Okay, there's a raised donut shell, with banana foster filling. Chocolate icing on that, and shredded coconut on top."

Along with the rest of Ellenville, let's say "Good Luck" to Christine Roman and the Bodacious Banana, which could be coming soon to a Dunkin' Donuts near you.

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