In response to a comment, I wanted you to know that I am not saving and/or spending all the money just on myself. I have decided on some preliminary charitable recipients, but the list is not finalized. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and our local ballet company are at the top of the list as is the Victory Junction Gang Camp. This awesome camp for critically ill children was started by Kyle and Pattie Petty in honor of their son Adam who was killed at Loudon, New Hampshire. Loudon is one of the race tracks on the Nextel Cup's circuit. For those of you who do not know, the Nextel Cup is NASCAR's equivalent of the Super Bowl. Anyway, here is the link to Victory Junction http://www.victoryjunction.org if you want to read more about it. I had the pleasure of meeting Kyle and Pattie through a corporate event, and they are incredible, giving people.
The most fun part of my donation plan is already in play. It is actually dual faceted: people I know and people I do not know. Let me explain.
Some in my family have been thoughtful and helpful. I remember what they have done for me, and they will be reaping ten times the return on their generosity. Isn’t that an interesting thought? I wonder what people would truly give if they knew they would receive ten times their gift in return. My formula is going to need some sort of adjustable algorithm, because some gifts, while small, deserve more than the ten times formula. I will have to think about this more.
You know, it is an interesting situation -- being able to pay back people for nice things they have done. There are two mentors in college that saw me through rough times -- one of them a religion professor. I will not be forgetting a special doctor that wrote off some medical bills. I have never forgotten them. These people saved my life, and they comprise the first group of individual recipients -- the ones I know.
Perhaps a more fun group of potential recipients are the ones I do not know.......unsuspecting individuals. For example, the lady who works the drive through window at McDonald's for breakfast? She has virtually no teeth. She is always there and always smiling. Even with just a few teeth. She deserves something.
I met a lady in the ballet lobby who drove quite a distance for her daughter to dance at a more premium dance school. She had brain cancer. Her husband had left her daughter and her. She was living with her mother still trying to hold down a job. I alerted the ballet to her situation, and they offered her daughter a scholarship. I paid for her daughter's Spring Concert costume unbeknownst to her. Over the past year, I occasionally slip some money in an envelope with no return address and mail it. I never had the means before to help much. I want to do more now.
What about the waitress at the Waffle House? (In my part of the country, we call it the "Awful House.") Looking tired and frayed and making no tips. How would she react to a $100 tip? Or the one eyed cafeteria worker at my daughter's school who makes the hot entree'? The one who lights up when someone actually chooses HER creation over a hotdog or sandwich?
I enjoy pondering these types of questions.
The most fun part of my donation plan is already in play. It is actually dual faceted: people I know and people I do not know. Let me explain.
Some in my family have been thoughtful and helpful. I remember what they have done for me, and they will be reaping ten times the return on their generosity. Isn’t that an interesting thought? I wonder what people would truly give if they knew they would receive ten times their gift in return. My formula is going to need some sort of adjustable algorithm, because some gifts, while small, deserve more than the ten times formula. I will have to think about this more.
You know, it is an interesting situation -- being able to pay back people for nice things they have done. There are two mentors in college that saw me through rough times -- one of them a religion professor. I will not be forgetting a special doctor that wrote off some medical bills. I have never forgotten them. These people saved my life, and they comprise the first group of individual recipients -- the ones I know.
Perhaps a more fun group of potential recipients are the ones I do not know.......unsuspecting individuals. For example, the lady who works the drive through window at McDonald's for breakfast? She has virtually no teeth. She is always there and always smiling. Even with just a few teeth. She deserves something.
I met a lady in the ballet lobby who drove quite a distance for her daughter to dance at a more premium dance school. She had brain cancer. Her husband had left her daughter and her. She was living with her mother still trying to hold down a job. I alerted the ballet to her situation, and they offered her daughter a scholarship. I paid for her daughter's Spring Concert costume unbeknownst to her. Over the past year, I occasionally slip some money in an envelope with no return address and mail it. I never had the means before to help much. I want to do more now.
What about the waitress at the Waffle House? (In my part of the country, we call it the "Awful House.") Looking tired and frayed and making no tips. How would she react to a $100 tip? Or the one eyed cafeteria worker at my daughter's school who makes the hot entree'? The one who lights up when someone actually chooses HER creation over a hotdog or sandwich?
I enjoy pondering these types of questions.
posted by Anonymous | 9:55 AM
3 Comments:
Congratulations!
If you're interested in helping a youth group mission trip to the gulf coast, let me know. :)
Oh, how wonderful! You will get so much enjoyment over being able to share this. I will look forward to hearing some of the stories!
I would love to do that . . . as it is, I just do things like purposely overbuy groceries and then call a frend who is struggling financially to see if they can "do me a favor" by taking some of the extras off my hands. After all, there's no way it will all fit in my tiny freezer. ;-)
That's so awesome. But how much did you win? You can tell us... We don't even know who you are.
I would think it would be fun, like you said, to go to work knowing that it doesn't really matter what happens.
I sometimes fantasize about winning the lottery, but I'm afraid of having -too- much money. I'm sure you've heard about all the people who've won the lottery only to have the money ruin their lives. You seem intelligent though, so surely it won't happen to you.
My real fantasy involves getting paid a lot of money for something I've written. Now that would be sweet!
But hey, I'd take a windfall any day!
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