AT just over five feet tall, her feet can barely reach the pedals and she's never been behind the wheel of a car, but Genevana Simmons was raring to go when she recently found out she had won a brand new BMW.

Ms Simmons was the overall winner of a $48,000 marine blue BMW in the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute's raffle to raise money for its education programmes.

Some 5,000 raffle tickets were sold, but Ms Simmons admits she only bought one $20 ticket, a few days before the closing date.

Even though she drives along East Broadway on her motorcycle every morning, she says she "never paid much mind" to the sporty blue car parked on the curb outside BUEI, and never in a million yeas thought she would actually win it.

"I would have been happy enough with a travel voucher," she admited.

When the call came that she had won, Ms Simmons recalls being in a state of shock and said she was "all hot" with excitement: "I'd never won anything that big before!"

However, the idea of driving lessons soon went out the window when she discovered what it would cost to keep her new BMW on the road.

"I just don't want something that expensive," she insists. So instead of driving lessons, she opted to sell the car and put the money to better use. "I want to get my mother a bike and invest the rest."

In the meantime BUEI Director Wendy Tucker remains inundated with calls from the public about the BMW.

"I've seen a lot of people since, saying they were still waiting for me to call them to collect their car," she said.

As for the overall outcome, Ms Tucker could not happier. "It was for a very worthy cause and we had a lot of fun in the months leading up to the draw," she said.

"People always had something funny to say when they came in to buy their raffles, like 'We're putting a down payment on our car' and we had a lot of support from the public and members alike."