Dear New Jersey Winner of $1.13B Mega Millions on March 27, 2024:
For reasons unknown to the public, you have chosen not to claim your winnings. Either that, or you passed from a coronary upon realizing that you had won. If the previous is true and you are facing some sort of ethical quandary, I wanted to present you with an option to donate the winnings to a cause you may be in agreement with.
I used to teach elementary and middle school. It didn't take me long to discover that today's youth are suffering from generational trauma (I'm not good enough) and limiting beliefs (There's no use in trying. I have no power and control- the government and big business do). The words that came out of my students' mouths shocked me. I believe in the potential of every person. However, their environment was not supporting my belief in them and school administrations were more focused on test scores than individual empowerment and self-discovery. So, I left education and started a non-profit called Reflecting Inward Life Coaching. The website has free resources to guide youth (and anyone really) through self-discovery, healing the inner child, challenging limiting beliefs, career exploration, experience with an expert in their community, and guidance to locate free tutoring and financial aid/scholarships if they decide that a higher education will help them meet their personal and career goals. It's a one-stop-shop to empower young adults to believe in themselves and achieve their highest potential. I even offer free 1-on-1 life coaching to those between the ages of 14-25. Not only am I a certified teacher, but I also have a MS in Psychology and am a Certified Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Life Coach, Positive Psychology Practitioner, and Trauma Support Specialist. All of my experience combined into creating resources for youth to succeed.
The challenge is getting this information to youth, especially since schools are hesitant to openly talk about mental health issues in schools. Awareness is the first step for any possible change, and they are not aware of this help. Now, for my plan: My desire is to work with top entertainment industry individuals that are looked up to by youth today to create awareness and opportunity for positive social change. I have written a screenplay and lyrics to 11 songs as a sequel to The Greatest Showman. The rights are owned by 20th Century Studios. I would use some of the donated funds to purchase the film and music rights and then to produce the sequel. The world fell in love with The Greatest Showman and the sequel will be nothing short of inspirational as well. Unfortunately, it takes more than 2 hours of inspiration to change lives. Even as one drives home from a theater, they realize that they don't know how pursue their dreams as they saw in a dramatized film. Knowing this, I have also outlined multiple seasons of a documentary TV series that details exactly how to implement the uplifting elements found within the film in an average person's life/community. This includes how to work together as a community to increase the production of all natural, sustainably made & packaged, fair trade products as well as NPO, Co-Op, and B-Corp businesses to sell these products in within local communities. This would empower individuals, families, and communities to thrive by providing their needs locally. I recently read that 78% of Americans were willing to pay up to 28% more for a product labeled "sustainably made." Increasing supply of these products that are free of harmful ingredients will encourage consumers to support these new small businesses because as supply and demand increase, the price decreases. I'm explaining this because part of the donated funds will go toward helping those who come from challenging or underprivileged environments gain experience with the top sustainable producers and B-Corp businesses and allow the world to experience their challenges and triumphs as their journey is documented. They will also receive some seed money to help them start their own business with a solid business plan and coaching through established NPOs (ie Slow Money and SCORE) that offer free step-by-step business startup guidance to individuals with the express interest in empowering communities to become self-sustaining.
In short, I would use the $1.13B (or any amount you feel you would like to donate) to uplift and empower individuals to believe in themselves and work together with their communities to thrive. The point is not to create new billionaires that pay their employees minimum wage, thus perpetuating poverty and extortion among those with less awareness and resources, but to 1) create a new expectation for any business to pay all employees a fair living wage regardless of their job title and to 2) increase individual self-worth and skills/access to resources so that employees never have to accept "minimum wage" again. If they have a passion and drive they will be empowered to reach toward it without limiting mindsets. If they don't feel they have a particular larger-than-life "purpose" then they will never have to worry about their basic needs no matter what job they have. This is a true free-market economy setup. One where new beliefs of individual value, worth, and community can be passed down to future generations.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. You can find more information about the NPO I started and my contact information at www.reflectinginward.org.
Kindly,
Heather Kirkpatrick
