Friends of the Dearborn, Missouri couple who are half-winners of a record $587.5 million Powerball Lottery jackpot think Cindy and Mark Hill will do some good with their winnings.
Cindy Hill is a 51-year-old laid off office worker. 52-year-old husband Mark is a mechanic.
The Hills, three grown sons and their six-year-old adopted daughter sat on chairs on the gym floor at North Platte R-1 High School, the largest venue in the town of barely 500 people, to meet with well wishers and reporters.
The pair seemed to enjoy reminding each other of their fortune. At one point, Cindy Hill said, "Uh, how much money did we win?"
Her husband Mark replied with, "I think it's, uh, two hundred ninety-three million, 750,000. Something like that, oh, before taxes."
The Hills will be splitting winnings with another ticket buyer in Arizona. The Hills said they were looking forward to what Cindy Hill calls a "pretty good Christmas."
Paige Newby teaches algebra at the high school and has known the Hills for 20 years. She believes she has a measure of them, saying, "they are going to have people coming out of the woodwork. Even if they're not related, if they see a need, I'm sure that it'll be taken care of. They're that kind of people."
Cindy Hill said they might consider adopting another child from China, as they did with their youngest. And perhaps a new car to replace Mark Hill's 180,000-mile-old pickup truck.
The Hills said they plan to open a scholarship fund at North Platte High School from which both of them graduated, a year apart.
