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Powerball lottery winners use jackpot to help nearby community

The Dearborn, Mo., couple who won a share of the largest jackpot in Powerball history is already using their money to help a nearby community.

In November, Mark and Cindy Hill won $293,750,000 in the Powerball lottery.

When they accepted their cheque, the couple pledged to use the new fortune for good:

"For some reason, (God) put it in our hands, I think, to make sure that it goes to the right things," Cindy said.

The Dearborn, Missouri, couple are honouring that promise. They are using a portion of their winnings to help improve Mark's hometown of Camden Point.

They plan on funding a move for the town's downtown firehouse, relocating it to the site of the local baseball field. The field will then be moved further from the highway, to better protect kids.

The gift equals a quarter-century of work if the city had to rely only on taxes, KMBC reported.

"This is just out of the kindness of their heart," Fire Chief Walt Stubbs told KMBC. "That's just the kind of people they are anyway. They were that way before the money came."

The Hills previously donated the funds needed to buy land for a wastewater treatment plant.

They've also helped create new scholarships for North Platte High School students.

"You don't have to do something like that. You don't find that in people nowadays," Camden Point resident Ellen Reynolds said of the couple she's never met. "People kind of take out for themselves and don't look at the big picture, and they're definitely looking at the big picture for a small town and it's kind of nice."

The Hills split their record $588 million Powerball jackpot with one other winner last year. It was the second-largest lottery win in American history.