Remember those cartoons illustrating our fantasy that either dollar bills were falling from the sky or growing on trees? The delivery mode, dollars as rain or as fruit from trees, exists only in our dreams, but if you filed a 2008 income tax return, you may soon find extra dollars in the mail, the delivery mode being a check from the federal government intended for us to spend to stimulate the economy. In the past fifteen years over 60 people surprisingly collected a rain of dollars as winners of the St. Andrews Hospital Auxiliary Lottery. This year, if you buy a lottery ticket or a portion of a lottery ticket, you may increase your ability to stimulate the economy by tucking those winning dollars into your pocket or bank account for future spending.

Most of our lottery winners have been local folks. The 2007 lottery winners were a group from the Lincoln County Administrative Services at St. Andrews Hospital with Kristen Moulton as the recipient for the group. In 2006 a group of three: Sunni Gail Page, Susan Lewis and Harold W. Simmons II won, and in 2005, although Charles Canning's name was on the winning ticket, he had purchased the ticket in the name of St. Andrews Hospital, so in addition to the $20,000 the hospital always receives from the lottery, that year the hospital also received the full amount of the winnings, $10,000. Since the lottery's beginning in 1994 when the winners were Evelyn Gladu and Elizabeth Spears, the lucky ticket has been bought about half the time by a group and half the time by an individual or a couple.

New to the lottery this year is the opportunity for three winning tickets, one worth $5,000, one paying $3,000, and the third paying $2,000. If you play and are one of the lucky ones, you can put additional dollars together with your government check and have the opportunity to give our economy a big boost, helping your local hospital and your country at the same time. Lottery coupons can be found at most area businesses or from any St. Andrews Hospital Auxiliary member. Only 300 coupons will be sold, each costing $100 with space for ten players at $10 each. The drawing of the three winning tickets will be June 24 at 5 p.m. at the Boothbay Harbor Waterfront Park.