George E. Woodward, Jr., holds the winning orange marble. (President-elect Mary Keely is left holding the bag.)

February 28, 2006

George E. Woodward, Jr., held the winning ticket, he reached into the black bag and pulled out the magic orange marble and thus won the "50-50" jackpot prize.

Tickets are sold each week at the Tuesday noon luncheon of Putnam Rotary. The lucky ticket holder then reaches into a bag of marbles, all green except one which is orange. If one of the green balls is retrieved, the pot continues to build while the number of green balls diminishes by one.

The jackpot had grown for several weeks when George came up with a winning ticket and orange marble today.

As other Rotarians groaned -- good-naturedly -- and applauded, Woodward then donated his winnings to the "happy dollar" fund which this quarter goes to the Putnam adult literacy program.

Herman Dixon has pledged to match the literacy "happy dollars" by 150%.

Woodward's win and subsequent gift thus triggered three charitable actions for literacy. Half of the ticket purchase goes to the club, which supports the literacy program. The "happy dollars" donation itself goes to literacy. And the donation in turn will be matched through Dixon's pledge.

Woodward is employed by Putnam County Bank.