Anonymous Frenchman wants to encourage human beings to give back to the planet and others
By Kate Northrop
An anonymous Frenchman who won the second-largest EuroMillions jackpot in history back in December 2020 has already given away most of his fortune in a bid to protect the environment.
A French EuroMillions winner of a massive €200 million (US$218 million) jackpot is not interested in fancy cars, huge mansions, or expensive vacations. Instead, he wants to see his money put to use in service of the planet.
In December 2020, the man's winning ticket matched the winning numbers to take home the then-largest EuroMillions jackpot of all time: 6, 9, 13, 24, and 41, with Lucky Stars 3 and 12.
The retiree, named "Guy" by French Lottery group Franҫaises des Jeux (FDJ), knew that he had to share his fortune the very moment he found out about his win.
"The minute I found out I was the lucky winner of the EuroMillions, I had the will to share my luck," he said in an interview with Le Parisien.
In fact, "Guy" has only ever played the lottery with the goal of saving the environment in mind.
"I only played during large jackpots, for one purpose: to devote most of this sum to the creation of a foundation," he wrote to the Fund.
Having crossed the item off his list of things to accomplish, "Guy" set out to start a foundation called the Anyama Endowment Fund, which focuses on "the protection and revitalization of forests, the preservation and regeneration of biodiversity and the support of family caregivers."
"The Anyama Endowment Fund is the result of an imperious desire to act for nature and human beings that I have had for years," he said.
The name "Anyama" comes from a town in the Ivory Coast where the winner witnessed something in his childhood that would leave a lasting impact years later.
"During my life, I have witnessed in [the Ivory Coast] the incessant passage of trucks loaded with trees cut in the forests of Burkina Faso," he told Le Parisien. "The procession of trucks left a deep impression on me and filled me with outrage."
The Anyama foundation will primarily work on areas in France, including the mainland and its overseas territories.
The FDJ lottery group hailed his decision to give away most of his money in service to the planet, lauding it as an exceptional and generous gesture.
"We have never seen an initiative of this size, but there again, we have rarely seen such high winnings," a representative from the French National Lottery said. "Often, these things go hand-in-hand."
Retired in the south of France, "Guy" said he hopes to continue living life "peacefully," but he will continue his work to spread the message that we can preserve the natural environment if we put our minds to it.
"Above all, it is the expression of a conviction that I want to share with as many people as possible: giving makes people happy and constitutes a tremendous lever for transforming indignation into concrete and useful actions," the selfless winner said. "So that's what I'm doing today by creating Anyama, which acts for the benefit of the common good of all, with one watchword: protect the living."
Well, hopefully this helps with the planet 😒
His foresight. His funds.
Bless him for caring and investing.
Nice way to take something green and keep it green.
Nice win !
I was wondering why he would play if he doesn't care about earthly possessions but I guess he was playing to save the earth. Cool!
That was so loving!!
Honestly, I could only have done that if I was already wealthy.
The World needs more people like Him.... Kudos
Some farmers here or there in the world started planting trees. I think that they did this in North Africa. Plant one tree a day, that's 365 trees in a year, 3650 trees in ten years. If fifty farmers did that, then 50*3650 trees. ... Money can disappear if you give it to others to do things. ...
I hope Al Gore got a piece of the action. He probably has a lot of carbon credits (whatever that is) left over that he could give the guy in exchange so he could save the polar bears and maybe get a nice massage afterwards.
What a moron! Saving the planet? Are you freaking kidding me? The Earth has been around for billions of years, the Earth doing just fine without us. The Earth has been through hell and back for billions of years, and the Earth had no problem returning to normal.
Having said that, we do have a climate change problem that's going to affect humans, and no amount of money is going to help without people getting involved actively, but we have a lot of deniers around us so it's just going to get worse.
A monumental gesture for those of us who cannot afford the ticket price on the SPACEX Rocket Ship bound for MARS !
"the Earth doing just fine without us."
There's the problem. The Earth has had to get by with us for at least the last few years and we're not always the best tenants.
* The guy should have given half his fortune to St Jude where Families Never Receive a Bill from St. Jude for Treatment, Travel, Housing or Food. Also impressive is the fact that 82 cents of every dollar received has gone to support the treatment, research and future needs of St. Jude. Just my opinion...
Climate change has been going on since Creation.
My jacked-up, smoke-belching, jumbo-tired, monster 4wd pickup didn't cause it then and it ain't causin' it now.
And if every bald-headed, pony-tailed, sandal-wearing, little weirdo in the country drives an ugly little Prius, it ain't gonna change a dadgum thing.
"Climate change has been going on since Creation."
Amen...
The Earth iz just in a warming cycle..but if It just so happened to be in a cooling cycle.. They'd blame it on too many people eating "Freeze Pops", or having their Airconditionerz on high too long..!
The real harm is underground Nuclear tests..!!
I'm old enough to remember when the "scientists" were gloom and dooming about the coming "Ice Age."
Still waiting for that one.
That was around the same time Jacques Cousteau said the coral reefs would be dead in ten years causing the end of the world unless I sent him some money real quick.
I don't know how we survived that, cuz I didn't send him any money.
How does this relate to "Protecting the Environment"?
.... it doesn't, but you have to have healthy people around to enjoy the environment, don't you think?
*Bless your pointy little heads. " JA.