Lottery Winner Gives Ticket To Charity, Follows Historic Example
Recently, a generous lottery winner did not pop the winnings in their pocket but instead chose to donate the whole ticket directly to a Salvation Army bell ringer.
However, this type of generosity has practically become commonplace over the past few years, and lottery winners around the world are in the headlines on a regular basis for donating multi-millions.
The most recent example of lottery and charity generosity happened at a Wal-Mart in Harborcreek Township, Pennsylvania.
When the lottery ticket was donated to the charity around December 6, the winner hid the Fantastic 10s instant ticket inside of a $1 bill, according to the Erie-Times News.
This anonymous donor is still at large, but they have added their names to the growing list of generous lottery winners donating most or all of their money to charities.
For example, when a Chino Hills, California, couple won $528 million, around January 13, SCPR reports that they did not want to become public figures, but planned to donate some of their cash prize of $327.8 million before federal taxes.
About their decision to give some or most of their lottery money to charity, the couple made a point of stating in their press release that they have, “committed nearly all of this new resource to a trust and to charities that are important to us.”
On September 12, an anonymous New Hampshire winner of the $487 million Powerball jackpot decided to give some of their winnings to six different charities.
The winner took a lump sum of $341 million and had $256 million after paying taxes. Since then, this lottery winner has donated $100,000 to each of the six charities and plans for the donations to be ongoing.
Generosity is contagious, and 11 Alive also reported that the place that the lottery winner bought their $487 million winning ticket, Hannaford, gave their $75,000 sellers’ bonus to charities plus an extra $25,000 in donations.
While most lottery winners will keep a portion for themselves, others hit the big numbers and walk away to return to their regular blue-collar jobs.
A good example is a waitress in Minnesota that won $11.7 million but donated “a chunk” to charity and the wife plans to return to waitressing at the Lake Elmo Inn.
Huffington Post reported on September 10, 2014, that Joe and Rhonda Meath planned to donate lottery winnings to the St. Paul Police K-9 Foundation and another $15,000 to the clerk that sold them the ticket so they can finish going to college.
Nevertheless, it is not only Americans that are donating their lottery winnings to charity. Lancashire Telegraph reports on February 2 that an 83-year-old lottery winner named Charles Leighton bought themselves a new coat and then donated what remained of the £7,250 ($9,093) to charity.
ITV reports on June 9 that a U.K. lottery winner Peter Congdon donated £1 million ($1,254,300) of his 2015 £13.5 million ($16,934,332) winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity in tribute to his wife, Rosemary.
Perhaps one of the top charity donations of all times, a lottery winner in France gave €50 million ($52,555,000) of their €72,149,579 ($75,850,852) winnings to a dozen charities.
Rivaling this, $40 million Canadian dollars ($30,113,452) was donated by a Canadian lottery winner, according to Today. They reported on December 19, 2013, that Tom Crist intended to donate all of the money to charities that fund cancer research on behalf of his late wife, Jan, who lost her life to the condition.
One of the most notable charity donations by a lottery winner was in America. According to a Daily Mail report from February 16, Ruby Sorah, aged 90, won the lottery in Florida but donated every single penny of the money to her favorite charity: her family.
While some lottery players buy the occasional ticket when the jackpot is big enough, others have an addiction. If you think you have a problem with gambling, consult the Problem Gambling Prevention website.
[Featured Image by Mark Makela/Stringer/Getty Images]
