AGAINST THE ODDS
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:19 am
School bus driver Stephen Cooke, 60, of Roswell, Ga., discovered he was one of three multi-million-dollar winners of the 10-state Mega Millions lottery. When he turned in his ticket at the lottery office they asked him if he had bought any other tickets -- their computer showed that a second winning ticket had been bought at the same place he bought his, and at the same time. A security guard accompanied him home, where he found that he had accidentally bought another ticket with the same number, doubling his $13.3 million win to $26.6 million. He also had two $150 winners. Meanwhile, a group of 16 public school employees in Holdingford, Minn., pooled their money to buy Powerball lottery tickets -- and won the $95.5 million jackpot. But, they say, the school won't see an exodus of employees. Kathy Welle, one of the winners, says she won't stop washing dishes in the cafeteria, and "I don't plan to quit my other job, driving a school bus for the district, either," she says. "What else would I do? What else would any of us do?" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Minneapolis Star Tribune) ...Showing public schools don't just destroy the students' imaginations.
