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37 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, January 21, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 28, 2004 Wayne Reavis, 80, of Jacksonville won the Oregon Lottery in June 2001. After taxes the lump-sum distribution amounted to $2.3 million. He has used some of the money for his family, charitable causes, travel and home improvements. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Hitting the jackpot Local winners have faced ups and downs, but those interviewed didn’t let the windfall go to their heads By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune A big lottery win can change a lot of little things. "I do buy half-and-half for the cat now," joked Wayne Reavis, 80, a Jacksonville resident who hit an $8.75 million Megabucks jackpot in June 2001. Jackson County is home to 25 Megabucks winners who have won a total of $70.2 million. At the time of their wins, 10 winners lived in Medford; nine lived in Central Point, and four lived in Eagle Point; Rogue River and Jacksonville each have been home to one winner. Reavis and several other Rogue Valley lottery winners willing to talk say their wins haven’t radically transformed their lives but note that the money has brought new opportunities and challenges. Many other winners declined to discuss their wins. "I think I’m still the same person," said Medford resident Shelley Douglas, 51, who hit a $1.5 million Megabucks jackpot in January 2000. "I’m a pretty basic person, not into glitz and glamour." Advertisement She split her jackpot with another winner in Portland and chose the one-time payout, which cuts the winnings in half, but delivers them immediately instead of as an annuity over 20 years. After state and federal taxes, she and her husband Jim Douglas, a Jackson County road maintenance supervisor, walked away with $240,000 in lottery winnings. They paid for their son’s college education and for a dream wedding for their daughter, bought two new cars, did some empty-nest remodeling and bulked up their retirement account. She and her husband continue to spend on the same hobbies they’ve always enjoyed — scrapbooking for her and golfing for him. Reavis, too, took a lump-sum distribution, which, after taxes, totaled about $2.3 million. His cat wasn’t the only beneficiary, though. He and his wife, Jackie, gave some money to their two adult children, donated to their church’s building fund and helped the local Shriners organization pay to send Rogue Valley kids to Shriners hospitals for treatment. They continued to indulge their love of travel and he even bought a small plane to fly to a friend’s fishing lodge in Canada. They also built a guest cottage next to their historic home. The cottage’s porch posts sport small signs proclaiming "Your lottery dollars at work." "We were going to do the guest house anyway, but we did more with it," Reavis said, showing the custom cabinets and windows, locally milled tongue-and-groove floorboards and hand- painted Mexican sink. "We may be a little different than some winners," he said. "We didn’t go out and start throwing money in the air." Reavis, who owned Logan & Reavis Aviation at the Medford airport for 40 years until he sold it in 1996, also noted that, even before the win, "We weren’t exactly in the poor house." He already had an accountant, attorney and stockbroker to turn to once he collected his check at the Oregon Lottery office in Salem. That’s important, Oregon Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said. Although lottery officials can’t recommend particular services, they advise winners to get professional guidance on handling money. "Most people walking around Oregon aren’t prepared for a $30 million payday or even a million dollars," he said. "I know I’m not." Research by Eileen Gallo, a Los Angeles psychologist and writer who studies wealth, backs him up. She studied people who became suddenly rich, thanks to lottery wins, inheritances or initial public offerings of stock. In a summary of her work published in the January 2001 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, she noted that people who got legal and financial counsel tended to consider their sudden fortune a good thing. She reported only 14 percent of the quickly rich she studied saw the situation as negative. "You need to talk to someone about taxes and investments," said Lon Holston, 52, who won a $1.5 million Megabucks jackpot in 1989. His winnings come as an annuity that now totals $54,000 a year, after taxes. "I got some good advice and I’m not doing too bad." After a flurry of purchases — a new pickup, a motorhome for long family vacations, updated windows and other remodeling and an addition for his Central Point home — Holston realized "you have to keep a close eye on (spending)." Now he’s focused on tucking away money for his kids — when they’re old enough to appreciate it. His four children range in age from 15 to 30, but none of them can access the funds until they are 40. "I want them to make something of themselves," he said. Since his win, Holston has continued to work, first at Medite Corp., where he was employed when he hit the jackpot, as a lobbyist in Salem and now as a union representative with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Grants Pass. He’s also made two unsuccessful runs for the Oregon Legislature. Holston thinks his lottery win hampered his political fund-raising. "People don’t want to donate if they think you’ve got money," he said. Other people’s perception of his wealth brought other trouble, too, especially early on. "There’s lots of nasty stuff that happens," Holston said. Some co-workers were bitter that he didn’t quit his job, which they wanted, he said. Requests for money poured in and people sometimes became angry when he didn’t comply with their demands — for things ranging from a free drink to $50,000 for an operation. Reavis said he received only four "gimme letters" from strangers and one request from a relative he hadn’t heard from in ages. All were politely turned away. "We just haven’t had a problem," he said. "When we go to lunch with friends, they expect me to buy, but that’s OK." Douglas said most of the response to her winning was positive. "Everyone who called was a friend and they congratulated me. They didn’t ask for money," she said. A winner who declined to be identified said that although she considered the $7 million jackpot she and her husband hit in 1993 a gift, it has had negative repercussions — media attention, a massive tax hit and unending phone calls from people wanting money. "We’ve had so many headaches," she said. Some research indicates people shouldn’t expect long-lasting happiness from a lottery win. In an oft-cited 1978 study, researchers compared the relative level of happiness between lottery winners and paraplegics. While a jackpot gave people a boost in happiness and a crippling injury diminished happiness, the effects were temporary. Within eight weeks of either event, most people had returned to the degree of happiness they had before, the study said. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers