5-Year-Old Girl Who Emptied Her Piggy Bank For Charity Wins $48 Million Lottery 13 Years Later
This was her first-ever ticket, and she bought it on her 18th birthday!
YouTube Winning the lottery is a dream come true for most people. The odds of winning the Powerball, for example, is 1 in 292.2 million.
The chances of getting struck by lightning are significantly more likely, with the chances being 1 in 1.2 million! So, we can only hope the very lucky person who gets the fortune will also be charitable. One woman was not only that but was even in the news years earlier for one of her good deeds.
After donating her money to charity at age 5, Juliette Lamour won the lottery in a great example of karma.
According to CBS News, an Ontario teen, Juliette Lamour, has become the youngest person in Canada to win such a large prize, amounting to roughly 35 million USD.
Would you believe it was her first time buying a ticket? On her birthday weekend, her parents and sister were unavailable to see her grandfather, so she decided to visit him herself. She called, asking what kind of ice cream she should pick him up. Instead of a sweet treat, her grandfather gave her advice that turned out to be life-changing.
“He said to me: ‘You just turned 18, go buy a lotto ticket, test your luck,’” Lamour said at a media event. “So, I did.”
So, she went to Circle K and picked up her ticket for the Lotto 6/49. Thinking nothing of it, she went to work the next day at Rexall, a Canadian pharmacy chain. After a 15-minute break, there was a commotion in her workplace because someone in their town, Sault Ste. Marie had won the jackpot.
She exclaimed that she had a ticket. One of her coworkers used his phone to scan it, and when he discovered Lamour was the winner, everyone became overwhelmingly excited.
“He was screaming. In fact, everyone was screaming that I had won $48 million,” she said. “At first, I didn’t understand what was going on. How many zeroes is that? I couldn’t take in the news. We made quite a scene in the store that day.”
And this wouldn’t be her first time gracing the news cycle. In 2010, she made the news for donating a piggy bank that she shared with her sister worth $61 at a hockey game to support Haiti following the earthquake.
Her mom taught her well and made sure she handled winning the lotto respectfully.
“She answered the phone. I’m like, ‘I won the lottery!’” Lamour exclaimed. “She’s like, ‘What?” I’m like, ‘I won the lottery.’ She’s like, ‘No, you didn’t!’” On the “Inside the Village” podcast, she explained how the emotional conversation with her mom unfolded.
“I called my mom crying and telling her I had won the lottery, with my coworkers in the back yelling ‘Come and get her!’” she said. “I signed it and gave it to my mom to take home. Everyone was telling me I should leave, but she told me, ‘You’re staying until 5:00 p.m. and finishing your shift!’”
She was scared of accidentally losing the lucky ticket, so her mom put it in a Ziploc bag and inside an envelope. Her dad even bought a safe to store it in until they contacted the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) the following day to confirm that she held the winning ticket.
What’s next for the new young millionaire?
Fortunately, her dad is a financial planner, so she plans to spend the winnings safely. And most of it will be given to philanthropy, fitting with her good samaritan track record. Despite the fortune, she still plans to attend medical school and practice medicine.
“My goals are still the same. I want to stay in school. If I had to quit school, I wouldn’t want this,” she said.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.