When my son came home one day so excitedhe could hardly speak, I was very surprised. He had just recently started at a new school and he did not know verymany people.  When he calmed down, heexplained that the Student Body President had announced a lottery contest thatwould give the winner a free cell phone.

My son had been asking for a   for a while, but I didn't thing he was old enough for one.  I asked him how much the tickets cost and Iwas informed that you couldn't buy tickets for the lottery.  You had to earn them.  I was surprised because the lottery contestsusually were done to raise money for a school event.  My son explained that you could pick from afree Apple I-phone, a Blackberry cell phone, the new AT&T cell phones, orthe Verizon Wireless cell phones.  I knewhe was probably interested in the Apple I?-phone as that was what his fatherand I used.

He explained you had to do good deedaround the school and town and you would receive one entry for each gooddeed.  This was beginning to sound likean interesting idea.  Over the next threeweeks, you could see dozens of 14 and 15-year olds picking up trash, removinggraffiti, washing windows, painting old buildings, and so much more.  The local paper printed a story about theprogram and one of the larger networks picked the story up.

Finally, the big day came and to mysurprise, several merchants had gotten involved and everyone who had participatedin the lottery got a free cell phone of their choice.  It was a sight to see when the studentsunderstood that they had all won.  Theprincipal made a speech and thanked all the phone merchants for their help andsaid that not only had the students all been winners but so was the town.