Powerball Fever!!!!!

With everything going on in the world around us, the jackpot of the Powerball Lottery has risen to around 600 million dollars!!!  That astronomical amount in the jackpot would probably yield a cash payout of over 400 million dollars.  What does one really do with that kind of money?  Save it, spend it or just give it away? 

The human race doesn't have a very good track record when it comes into receiving a large amount of money in a short period of time.  If you look at some of things in central PA, the Hershey Trust and the Weis family philanthropy with Geisinger come to mind.  These contributions will last and have last long after the donors have gone. 

If you look at a somewhat smaller, local scale, you have the Deppen Scholarship at Bucknell which celebrates 50 years this year and Curvery Scholarship at Villanova University, founded by a former Mahanoy Area High School graduate.

Former New York Yankee and Baltimore Oriole, Mike Mussina earned in the neighborhood of 250 million dollars from his playing day and still makes his home in Lycoming County.  His foundation provides 12 scholarships a years to a graduating senior in all 12 high schools of Lycoming County.  In addition, his foundation contributes to many other local and some national youth programs.

In all these cases, the people mentioned above have put a lifetime of work into these endeavors.  Somewhere along the way, they were blessed work ethic, common sense, talent, and in some cases a little bit of luck along the way.

In our own area of Shangri-La (Shamokin), we had coal barons and other industrialists that made fortunes in our area only to read about them is dusty history books at our local library.

We don't know how our lives can change in an instant.  At 11:05 tonight, someones life can be changed forever.  We all have had hope and dreams of over the last few days. We imagine what life can be like.  Odds are that there will be less than 5 winning tickets across the country.  That means for most of us, we will be back to the grind by Monday morning if not sooner.  One thing to hold on to is our hope and dreams.  They are good things to have and no good thing ever dies.