via thegrio.com
Last year, the Smith family in Trenton, New Jersey, won the $429 million Powerball lottery, and they planned to use all that money to help fight poverty. Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven children meant what they said at a press conference when they promised to give that money back to their community.
“It was like affirmation from God because we each have dreams that we want to fulfill in this life, and do for our community and do for each other and for our families and we have been funded to do that,” Smith’s daughter Valerie Arthur said last year when the family won about $25 million apiece after taxes when they decided to take their winnings in a lump sum.
They used the money to pay off bills and student loans before they put it back into their community with the Smith Family Foundation. “We want to fund programs that directly affect systems of poverty so we can help change the systems or change the dynamics that are causing people to be in poverty,” Harold Smith told NJ.com. “Rather than just helping them find food or give away food, we can make it so they now have the ability to obtain employment, get their proper education in order to be able to go out and get their own food.”
The foundation will work with the city in order to provide both long- and short-term grants for Trenton.
Source: Family wins $429 million lottery, aims to use money to fight poverty | theGrio
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