A 58-year-old Adventist millwright in the U.S. state of Washington has won $1 million in a sweepstakes, and he intends to give away the money to good causes, including an Adventist organization that cares for
orphaned children.
Neil Kroll, a 31-year
resident of Castle Rock, population 1,984, said he would pray about how to spend the
surprise windfall from Publishers Clearing House.
“If the Lord allows you to
win something like this … then there is a reason,” Kroll said moments after he
learned that he had won the sweepstakes on Monday, the local Longview
Daily News reported. “There are people
who must need a million dollars, and it’s not me. You don’t win this to use it
for yourself.”
Kroll, who works at
Weyerhaeuser, one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands, said he
didn’t recall entering the sweepstakes.
Publishers Clearing House is
a marketing company that sells magazine subscriptions and is well known for its
$1 million sweepstakes. Kroll was selected as the winner in a randomized
computer drawing.
“I wish it was me,” neighbor
Curtis Hornbuckle, laughing, told CBS television affiliate KOIN. “Don’t we
all?”
Publishers Clearing House
representatives shocked Kroll by approaching his white single-story house with a
giant $1 million certificate, a bunch of colorful balloons, and a bouquet of red
roses.
YouTube footage from Publishers Clearing House shows a visibly stunned Kroll being told on the front
porch of his home that he had won the sweepstakes. Kroll first words: “Wow!
Praise the Lord!”
A representative also gave
Kroll a real $25,000 check and told him to “start having fun and hit the bank,” Longview
Daily News said.
Kroll, a member of the
Winlock Seventh-day Adventist Church, said he would instead give part of the
first installment to a favorite organization, International Children’s Care,
based in nearby Vancouver, Washington.
International Children’s
Care operates “children’s villages” around the world in which 10 to 12 children
live in a group of cottages and are cared for by a local couple. The organization
was established after a 1978 earthquake in Guatemala left many children
homeless, and it is a member of ASI, or Adventist‑laymen's Services and Industries.
Kroll, who is married, was considering
whether to take the rest of the $1 million winnings in a lump sum of about
$600,000 after taxes or $25,000 a year for the next 29 years. He said he
probably would take the lump sum.
Watch Neil Kroll learn the news in a Publishers Clearing House video on YouTube
Video and report on CBS TV affiliate KOIN
Contact Adventist Review news editor Andrew McChesney at [email protected].
Twitter: @ARMcChesney
