Megabucks jackpot to send Lubec man's two sons to college

Larry Burns of Lubec hasn't had time to figure out everything he wants to do with his nearly $10 million Megabucks jackpot, but one thing he is sure of. "Yesterday there was a tuition increase on the front page. Before, had I seen it, it would have been very depressing. Seeing it today, I'm just saying 'Wow.'" Larry's twin sons, Doug and Tim, are graduating in a few days from Lubec High School, and both want to go on to college. "Tim wants to go into chemical engineering," says Burns. "He's been accepted at Orono [University of Maine]. Doug wants to go into automotive." After having to retire early due to health problems, "We didn't know how we were going to [pay for college]. It is such a good feeling to know now, my sons' education is taken care of. My sons can go to college and not have to owe anything when they're done.

Burns says that he regularly plays the lottery at McFadden's Variety, but "up until recently, I hadn't been attracted to Megabucks." He plays a combination including his sons' birth date, February 14. Burns didn't think that his sons had heard immediately about his win. "Both of our sons are on a senior class trip to Boston. As far as we know, unless someone called a teacher, the boys will be coming home to this as a complete surprise."

Burns and his ex-wife, who share a home in Lubec, thought about trying to have an announcement shown on the scoreboard in Boston, where the boys were attending a game. "We thought, 'Tim and Doug Burns C Daddy hit the Megabucks' on the screen. But then, no, we wanted to wait until they came home to see their faces."

When they returned home, "they were so happy," says Beth, the twins' mother. "They cried. The teachers knew, but they held it back from the kids. They [Doug and Tim] have big dreams now."

Burns also plans to take the whole family for a trip to Florida during the summer, to visit his father. Burns says the win came at an auspicious moment for the family. "We were surviving, but it was not the way we wanted to live. But you only need to look over your shoulder here to see someone else having a harder time than we were."

Jay McFadden, the owner of the store where Burns bought the winning ticket, heard about it when he came into the store after church on Sunday. "The winner was so calm and seemed much more excited about our selling bonus than his own jackpot win!" states McFadden. "However, the $9.85 million win probably hadn't quite sunk in yet!" The store will receive $30,000 for selling the winning ticket. McFadden says that he plans to distribute part of the money to his employees and use the rest to pay bills. Besides lottery products, the store sells food, beer and wine, and convenience items, and is one of only two gasoline stations in the area. Besides serving pizza and sandwiches for take-out, McFadden's is a popular gathering spot for fishermen having their morning coffee. It is popular with residents of Campobello Island, which has no gas station, as well as Lubeckers.