The Greatest Phone Lottery of All Time

When my son came home one day so excited he could hardly speak, I was very surprised.  He had just recently started at a new school and he did not know very many people.  When he calmed down, he explained that the Student Body President had announced a lottery contest that would give the winner a free cell phone.

My son had been asking for a  free cell phone for a while, but I didn’t thing he was old enough for one.  I asked him how much the tickets cost and I was informed that you couldn’t buy tickets for the lottery.  You had to earn them.  I was surprised because the lottery contests usually were done to raise money for a school event.  My son explained that you could pick from a free Apple I-phone, a Blackberry cell phone, the new AT&T cell phones, or the Verizon Wireless cell phones.  I knew he was probably interested in the Apple I­-phone as that was what his father and I used.

He explained you had to do good deed around the school and town and you would receive one entry for each good deed.  This was beginning to sound like an interesting idea.  Over the next three weeks, you could see dozens of 14 and 15-year olds picking up trash, removing graffiti, washing windows, painting old buildings, and so much more.  The local paper printed a story about the program and one of the larger networks picked the story up.

Finally, the big day came and to my surprise, several merchants had gotten involved and everyone who had participated in the lottery got a free cell phone of their choice.  It was a sight to see when the students understood that they had all won.  The principal made a speech and thanked all the phone merchants for their help and said that not only had the students all been winners but so was the town.