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YUCAIPA'S TIRELESS CHILD ADVOCATES
WIN $27 MILLION
It's a feel-good story that touched the hearts of millions of people across this nation and around the world, and it all began when Debi Faris-Cifelli, 49, founder of the "Garden of Angels" (a cemetery for abandoned, unidentified infant bodies throughout Southern California), and her husband Steve won a $27 million SuperLOTTO Plus jackpot on Dec. 1, 2004.
Even more surprising: This was only the second time they had played the lottery.
"While coming back from a conference near Palm Springs, I had a sudden feeling, an intuitionŠthat we should play. So we put down $20," said Steve, smiling. "I'm glad we did."
Debi had another possible explanation for the win: "I believe in a higher power that makes things come about. I have a lot of faith in God. I think that we all have guardian angels watching over us," said Debi. "Maybe we won the lottery because it was the children's way of saying thank you for taking care of them when nobody else would."
Long before Debi Cifelli won the California Lottery, she was already a big winner ‹ in life.
"I was a stay at home wife with three kids," she said. "And then my life changed one day in 1996. It was a normal night for meŠI had one eye on dinner and the other on the evening news when I heard a story about a newborn baby boy who had been stuffed into a duffel bag and tossed from a speeding car along a freeway.
"I couldn't stop thinking about this child and wondering how we had become the kind of society that just throws their babies away as if they were a piece of trash," Debi (her last name was then Faris) explained.
Debi then contacted the local authorities and asked for the dead baby to be released to her for a proper burial.
"That took a while," she said. In the meantime another newborn was found abandoned. "I knew I had to do something significant, or at least try."
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And so the Garden of Angels was born. Faris and her then husband, Mark, paid $27,000 for 44 small plots in the Desert Lawn Cemetery in Calimesa, a Riverside County town along Interstate 10. The cemetery would be a sacred place where abandoned babies are laid to rest.
Since then, and until now, Garden of Angels has survived on a small budget (about $172,000 a year) in its attempt to bury abandoned infants and encourage young parents to save the lives of their babies by leaving them with an agency that will provide them with proper care and an adoptive family.
But that's not all; Debi was also the driving force behind California's 2001 Safe Haven Law allowing desperate mothers to leave newborns at safe locations without fear of prosecution. [It's now the law in other states as well.]
No wonder Debi Cifelli's lottery win was so lauded around the world. And Debi was glad to get the word out: "You don't have to throw your baby away is the message I want to get across," she said. "There is help. People care. There are other ways to deal with your problems."
Through it all, Steve has remained a supporter and an admirer of his wife. "Just knowing her has made me a better person," he confessed. "Being with Debi made me a winner. Then we won the lottery. We are truly blessed.
"It's been a crazy whirlwind of activity," Steve continued. "We've been on the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and about 300 radio stations around the world, from Australia to the U.K. We've been written about in People magazine and Reader's Digest. The reaction has been phenomenal."
Even at work, "people were happy for us. Crying," said Steve. "Everyone was saying, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving couple. But, although the high school kids I counsel were happy for us, they wanted to know if I was still going to be their guidance counselor; if I was quitting. One kid came up to me and said, 'We need you, Mr. Cifelli.' How could I not be moved by those sentiments?"
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Steve met Debi long before they got married. "He was a guidance counselor for one of my kids," she said.
"Mr. Cifelli, as I called him then, had heard about the Garden of Angels and asked how he could help. He rides with a group of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts and he volunteered the entire group's help. Later, we spent time together, talking. Steve had four kids of his own."
They fell in love and got married this past summer. They were married for four months when they won the lottery.
"We never played the lottery much," said Steve. "I have a hard-work ethic. I was working two jobs because we had kids to put through college. Debi was involved with the Garden of Angels fundraising."
When they hit the SuperLOTTO Plus jackpot, Steve was the first to tell Debi the news.
"Sweetheart, our lives are about to change," he said over the phone. "I didn't believe it at first," Debi Cifelli said. "I mean, how could you possibly believe you've just won $27 million?" She told her husband, "Honey, if you're kidding, you're in such big trouble."
"When the family found out, we screamed, we laughedŠand we cried. It was an incredible feeling," said Steve. "One of my daughters asked, 'Can I go to college now?' "
The couple raced to the lottery office in Riverside, arriving just 10 minutes before the office closed for the weekend. They opted for a single lump payment.
What will they do with their winnings? "Some will be put away for the family, and Cifelli said she and her husband may buy a vacation home or take a trip. They'll also care for their parents. Debi's priority is to create a foundation that gives scholarships in honor of every baby buried in the Garden of Angels.
"Steve and I have always felt like we were rich because we have each other and our families. There is nothing we need. When we want to relax, we'll get on Steve's Harley and drive off somewhere. We like to read. We like quiet times. Winning the lottery is a gift and one for which we both feel a great responsibility," said Debi.
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