BY THE NUMBERS
$14 million: Unclaimed lottery winnings each year in Tennessee23,000: Number of Tennessee students who participate in lottery-funded after school programs79: Number of agencies receiving LEAPs awards$13,845,500: Amount awarded in 2014Source: Tennessee Lottery Corp.
Tamara Humphres isn’t too worried about cashing in the winning scratch-off lottery ticket she got in an office gift exchange over the holidays.
“I won $2. Have I gone to claim it yet? No,” said Humphres, the after-schools program coordinator for the Cleveland City Schools district in Cleveland, Tenn.
That’s because unclaimed lottery winnings fund about 75 percent of the After-School University that Humphres oversees. The Cleveland City Schools program, which serves 150 children daily at all six of the district’s elementary schools, in August won a three-year grant of $200,000 per year from Lottery for Education: Afterschool Programs (LEAPs).
The money helps keep prices low for parents, who pay a maximum of $12 a day, although about 60 percent of them get a discount. The lottery funding also helps keep the after-school program fun, by paying for such extras as having kayaking instructors visit over the summer to put on a demonstration in a school swimming pool.