There are literally thousands of articles about lottery winners who fall from grace, succumbing to hubris and bad life decisions. Perhaps we prefer fairytales gone awry more than one with a long-lasting ‘happily ever after’. However entertaining the stories of destruction can be, let’s feed our humanity just a bit with some tales of the most generous and deserving lottery winners.
Canadian Winner Donates CAD$40 Million in Honour of His Wife
Some lottery winners prove that they’re deserving by giving it all away. Tom Crist had a Lotto Max subscription that he hardly ever thought about until he would receive the yearly renewal notice. It was a good thing he decided to keep renewing, because he won CAD$40 million on 3 May 2013. There are two things you need to know about Tom: 1) Tom was a retired CEO of an electric company which was sold for CAD$1.14 billion, and 2) Tom really loved his wife Jan. Before his lottery win, Jan was diagnosed with cancer and passed away at the age of 57. Since Tom said he didn’t need the money, he decided to donate every single penny of it to cancer charities and advanced cancer treatment facilities in his wife’s memory. The first recipient of the lottery money was the Tom Baker Centre in Calgary, where his wife was treated.
Homeless Man Spends His Last Coins on a Lottery Ticket
László Andraschek was on his way to a workshop for recovering alcoholics when he spent his last coins on a lottery ticket. He ended up becoming one of Hungary’s biggest lottery winners, collecting Ft630 million (about $2.8 million at the time) in September 2013. His win didn’t garner any media attention until he made a large donation to a hostel for the homeless in February 2014. Andraschek paid all his debts and his relatives’ debts and bought houses for his three children, along with a car. He said he wanted to use the rest wisely and to help the homeless, addicts, and abused women. “I have become rich but I have not become a different person. I could buy a large-screen TV because I can afford it, but I won’t buy three because I can afford it,” he told the Guardian.
A EuroMillions Winner Shares the Wealth
Margaret Loughrey took a walk after filling out job applications at a local job centre in Strabane, Northern Ireland. Seemingly down on her luck, the unemployed 48-year-old stopped at a market and found enough money in her purse to purchase a EuroMillions ticket. With a single purchase, Loughrey went from living on unemployment benefits of just £58 per week to cashing a £27 million EuroMillions cheque. This change of fortune wouldn’t change Margaret, however. She decided to keep only £1 million for herself and give the other £26 million away. Her main focus is town renewal and job creation in Strabane – she’s already the director of nine companies and has donated £1 million to transform a major tourism site in the town, creating tons of new jobs in the process. Loughrey sees it as her civic duty: “Everyone has the right to work for a living, to support their families, to buy their own home, to run their own business. People just need to be given opportunities.”
A Record-Breaking Winner With Record-Breaking Kindness
Sheelah Ryan’s $55 million Florida Lotto jackpot win made her America’s largest single lottery winner in September 1988. That record has since been shattered, but Sheelah’s devotion to helping people and animals is hard to match. At the time of her win she was employed as a real estate broker and living in a trailer home park in Winter Springs, Florida. She started the Ryan Foundation, where the bulk of her winnings were used to support underprivileged kids, single mothers, abused women, people living in poverty, and stray animals. Ryan died in 1994 from cancer at the age of 69. In a 1993 interview, she said, “I thank God every day that I have the ability to help others, not that I won.”
Struggling Single Mom of Four Makes It Big
Imagine taking care of four kids – ages 9 months to 7 years – as a single parent. Now add in the fact that the oldest child has special needs. That was the life Marie Holmes of North Carolina was dealing with. She gave up her education to care for her children and worked minimum wage jobs at McDonald’s and Walmart, trying to make ends meet. The 26-year-old was living with her four kids in her mother’s house since she couldn’t afford to live on her own. She herself grew up with a father that was in and out of jail during her childhood, so from the beginning her life wasn’t easy. Her life turned around on 11 February 2015 when she matched the winning numbers for the $564 million Powerball jackpot, along with two other ticket holders for a total prize of $188 million each. Holmes now has money for her children, their children, and their children’s children and so forth. No more minimum wage, she’ll be living life to the max.
The Three Amigos Celebrate a Priceless Friendship
The entire lottery community was watching with anticipation as the winning numbers were picked for Mega Millions’ $656 million jackpot – what was then the world record for largest jackpot — on 30 March 2012. When the winning numbers were called, three friends got the shock of a lifetime. The three friends, who call themselves the Three Amigos, are all Maryland public school employees who pooled their money together to buy 60 tickets. One of the tickets matched all the winning numbers for a total prize of $218.6 million (two other tickets matched) or just a bit less than $35 million per amigo. Besides the fact that they’ve dedicated their lives to the public school system, the Three Amigos are cool winners because they’re intergenerational friends who seem so down-to-earth. They are comprised of a woman in her 20s, a man in his 40s, and another woman in her 50s; the 20-something held the tickets and when she saw they had a winner, she called her friends immediately and they met up late that night to celebrate in person. They also made great decisions like hiring a financial advisor and staying relatively anonymous. No fame necessary, just a winning ticket and lasting friendship.
A Lottery Stunt Goes Viral
Magic of Rahat, a well-known YouTube prankster with over 3.8 million subscribers, decided to use his skills for good when he gave a homeless man a winning scratch-off lottery ticket in March 2014. Rahat said that he kept seeing the same homeless man sitting outside the local shopping center and that people in the neighborhood had told him what a nice and respectable guy he was. Rahat gave the homeless man the winning ticket and said he didn’t know how much it was worth, so they’d have to go to the store together and check. When Rahat and the homeless man went to the store and found out the ticket was worth $1000, the homeless man was shocked. He kept trying to give Rahat some of the money, which he refused. The homeless man’s generous spirit inspired millions of viewers and people wanted more information about how to help the homeless man, whose name is Eric. Rahat established a fund for Eric on Fundly and within a matter of days, he managed to raise $30,000. The money has allowed Eric to rent a house for a whole year, giving him time and a chance to restart his life. To date, the original YouTube video has been viewed almost 22 million times.
No comments:
Post a Comment