by Brittany Wallman via miamiherald.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. A childhood in the black community of Memphis. A cruise line career that delivered him to a life in South Florida. And a lottery ticket he bought at a gas station. A winning lottery ticket. They are the factors in Miguel Pilgram‘s life that bring him now to Sistrunk Boulevard, a corridor the county calls the “historical heartbeat of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest black community.”
Pilgram, who won a $52 million jackpot using quick-pick numbers in 2010, is investing some of his winnings in Sistrunk in a way not seen in years. Pilgram said he wants to breathe new vibrancy into the boulevard, building on its rich history as a place that nurtured civil rights leaders and pioneers and attracted people to its lively nightlife and music. “I was raised in a similar environment,” Pilgram said. “There is a need, and in my mind, an obligation, to invest there.”
The 48-year-old Coral Springs resident and father of two is rolling out plans for a New York Subs and Wings restaurant with a Memphis Blues club upstairs, on one side of Sistrunk. On the other, his company, The Pilgram Group, plans a retail complex with a bank, Jamba Juice and other shops on the ground floor. On the second floor, a performing arts center will offer below-market rates for instructors of dance, arts, and music. “Do you know how impactful that is for a child from any of these areas, who is like me, to come out and see people actually painting in the window, or performing on a saxophone?” Pilgram said. “That creates a fire under most children. Now they say, wow, anything out there that’s creative, I can be. Whatever artist I want to be, I can be.”
Back in Memphis, Pilgram said he had role models who shaped him. His father was hard-working. His mother was a devout Seventh-day Adventist who had him in church several days a week. When he got older, he joined the Navy. Then he embarked on a career in the cruise line industry, climbing to a top position, and learning to work with large budgets like the one now under his own name.In his world travels, he said he visited cultures where people marveled at his “beautiful” brown skin. He said he wants children in Fort Lauderdale’s historic black community to experience that feeling of value as an African American. But he also saw what can happen when private investment is lacking, he said, and government comes in to rebuild.
In Memphis, he said, his grandmother’s apartment was razed, and the residents displaced. He feared it could happen here, and said that’s one thing that drew him to Sistrunk Boulevard. ‘It could be you’ Every week, Pilgram spent $20 on lottery tickets. But he wasn’t good about checking them. Then one night he ran to the Shell gas station in North Bay Village where he bought his tickets. He left chicken cacciatore and his girlfriend at home, and was in a hurry. He just needed a bottle of wine. David, the gas station employee, was insistent. Someone had bought the winning Florida Lotto ticket at that gas station, he told Pilgram, and “it could be you.” Pilgram got the tickets from his car, and one of them hit: 15-16-20-32-45-50. David started “jumping up and down,” Pilgram said.”$52,000?” Pilgram thought he heard through David’s Spanish accent. No, not thousand. 52 million.
Sistrunk Boulevard hasn’t had a nightclub with live music like Pilgram plans in at least 25 years, City Commissioner Robert McKinzie said. The boulevard was once vibrant. Now, vacant lots and empty buildings sit on many of the blocks. The city, a major landowner on Sistrunk, has worked for years to encourage private investment. McKinzie said the pieces are finally falling into place, and he’s “excited” about Pilgram’s role in it. “Now that we are reviving it,” McKinzie said of Sistrunk Boulevard, “his plan and concept fit right in.” Next to Pilgram’s planned performing arts center, on the north side of Sistrunk between Northwest 14th Way and 14th Terrace, the city recently agreed to spend $10 million building a new YMCA where the old Mizell Center is.
To read full article, go to: Lottery winner to use part of $52M to transform street | Miami Herald
The 26-year-old Wilmington, North Carolina woman, who has a special needs child with cerebral palsy, is still reeling from the news. “I don’t think it’s really hit me,” she said. “I guess when it hits my account is when it’s really going to hit me, but I’m thankful that I can bless my kids with something that I didn’t have.”
Holmes, who does not regularly purchase lottery tickets, said she was struggling before her win. Upon seeing that her numbers matched the winning Powerball drawing ones, Holmes thought she was going to have a heart attack and screamed so loudly, she scared her children, one boy and three girls.
So what will the young mom do with all of the money? “First I ‘m going to pay my tithes because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God. After that I’m going to set up accounts for my kids,” she told WGN-TV. “And when we figure out where we’re going to live, I’m going to buy a house for me and my kids, then make sure my family is all good.”
Holmes, whose uncle actually sold her the winning ticket, was unemployed and looking for a job. She is only too glad that now she no longer has to depend on anyone financially. “I don’t have to worry about the word struggle no more and neither do they (her children).”
Does Holmes have any trepidation with regards to how her entire life will now drastically change?
“I am ready for it, ready to embrace the change! I am very grateful for what is about to happen to my family,” she told WGN-TV. “Everything is all for them. My kids can go to college, all on me, and they don’t have to worry about nothing. My granddaddy, my daddy, my sisters, they don’t have to worry about nothing, we made it.”
article by Ruth-Manuel Logan via newsone.com
