Teacher Wins $10,000 for Reading Fine Print

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March 7, 2019

A schoolteacher has won a $30,000 payout, $10,000 for herself, from an insurance company for reading the fine print.

Donelan Andrews, of Thomaston, Ga., took out a $400 travel insurance policy from Squaremouth because she is traveling with six of her friends to London. She was reading through the fine print in the policy, which runs to dozens of pages, when she found reference to a reward. The policy is from Squaremouth subsidiary Tin Leg, and the documentation referenced a secret contest: the first person to notify the company that the he or she had found the reference would get a reward of $10,000. The reference was on the last page of the policy.

The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company had just launched the promotion, which they titled Pays to Read. Andrews notified the company 23 hours after the promotion began, after 72 other policies had already been sent out to other customers.

Andrews, a teacher at Lamar County High School and Upson-Lee High School, said that she developed the habit of reading the fine print when she was in school and that she implored her students to do the same. She said that she used to include in examinations that she gave her students a question, usually about halfway through, that said, "If you're reading this, skip the next question."

Fine print reader

Squaremouth issued Andrews a $10,000 check and also donated $10,000 to Reading Is Fundamental, a children's literacy charity. Then, company representatives said, the company was so impressed with Andrews's dedication to reading and teaching that they gave a $5,000 donation of both schools at which she teaches. The schools will use the money to buy textbooks and to fund work-based learning programs.

Andrews said that she would use the prize money to help pay for a trip to Scotland with her husband, Mark, to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. She promised to take out travel insurance–and to read the entirety of the policy.

Squaremouth said that it had planned to keep the contest open for a year and then, if no one claimed the prize, donate it to the Washington, D.C.-based charity Reading Is Fundamental. The company also said that it was making its own point: to be sure that people who bought the travel insurance knew what it covered.

Donelan, 59, has taught for 25 years. She applied for retirement a week before taking out the travel insurance policy.

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David White

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copyright 2002–2024
David White