One Might Expect a Lotto Winner to Settle Into a Life of Luxury. But When Andy Vargas Won Big . . . : They All Hit the Jackpot

Before teeing off at the California Country Club in Industry, Andy Vargas took a brief detour and completed a ritual that has made him famous on the fairways.

Holding a crumpled plastic shopping bag, the 67-year-old businessman reached into a trash bin and began to scoop out empty soda and beer cans, as nearby golfers watched in wonder.

“Oh boy, look how many there are,” Vargas said, sounding like a youngster who just stumbled upon a jar of treats. “We hit the jackpot, boys and girls.”

It was not the first time Vargas had walked away with a jackpot. On Feb. 6, 1988, after buying $15 worth of lottery tickets from a neighborhood store, Vargas won the $5.28-million grand prize in California’s Super Lotto game.

A multimillion-dollar lottery winner might be expected to immediately retire into a life of luxury, but Vargas decided to share his fortune with others. Since hitting the jackpot, the Monterey Park resident has helped hundreds of people in Lincoln Heights and other Eastside communities, both directly and through a variety of charitable deeds--one of which he started funding through the laborious process of recycling cans.

“Andy’s famous. He’s the man with the heart of gold,” said James Allen, principal of Glen Alta Elementary School. “You don’t see too many people like him anymore who truly want to help people and don’t expect anything in return.”

Even before becoming a millionaire, Vargas, who owned a small garment manufacturing business in Lincoln Heights for 25 years, did more than his share to help the community.

In 1985, after refusing to accept money for uniforms he made for the Glen Alta drill team, Vargas was asked if he would be willing to “adopt” the school through the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Adopt-a-School program.

Vargas, unaware that the program recruits businesses and individuals to assist schools, paused for a moment and then asked, “How many children do you need me to take home?”

“(The principal) said: ‘400,’ and I thought: ‘Oh my God,’ ” Vargas said. “But then she told me (details) about the program and I said OK.”

Vargas’ first goal was to establish a college scholarship fund for Glen Alta graduates, in part because he dropped out of school after the eighth grade and always felt hindered by his limited education.

“That’s the only thing I would change in my life,” said Vargas, who is married and has four grown children. “I would get as much education as I could, because you can never catch up.”

To fund his scholarship foundation, Vargas started collecting aluminum cans. Although he collected 900 pounds in 18 months, his efforts earned him only $675.

Then in 1988, immediately after winning the lottery, Vargas contributed $20,000 of his first annual post-taxes check of $190,000 to his scholarship fund. Vargas has raised $70,000 for the fund, mostly proceeds from an annual fund-raising golf tournament he began in 1989.

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Last year, for the first time, Vargas awarded scholarships, ranging from $500 to $1,000, to 15 high school seniors. Students who attended at least the fifth and sixth grades at Glen Alta Elementary and plan to continue their education after high school are eligible to receive a scholarship.

“Andy’s vision is to help any kid interested in going to college or a vocational program, regardless of their grades,” Allen said. “When the first recipients of his scholarship were announced at the last tournament, Andy was just beaming. That’s what he worked so hard for.”

In addition to creating the scholarship fund, Vargas was instrumental in getting Richard Riordan, then in private business, to donate $80,000 in computers and computer equipment to the school in 1991. Riordan, who was elected mayor of Los Angeles in April, made similar donations to schools throughout the city.

Vargas also regularly visits Glen Alta Elementary, which he adopted because of its proximity to his garment manufacturing businesses, and takes 40 students to McDonald’s for lunch every year on Halloween.

Aside from his involvement at the school, Vargas is president of the Lincoln Heights Optimist Club and is a board member of the Lincoln Heights Chamber of Commerce. He also organized a new Optimist Club in El Sereno and is one of the key fund-raisers for White Memorial Medical Center in East Los Angeles.

Besides time and labor, his charity takes the form of cold cash; Vargas estimates that he donates $70,000 a year to charities or charitable events.

“He’s like Santa Claus,” Allen said. “All he needs is a big white beard and to gain about 100 pounds.”

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Although Vargas--a lanky man with slicked-back dark hair--hardly resembles the man in the red suit, he sometimes can’t help but play the role.

Eleven days before Christmas, Vargas spent the morning in Downtown Los Angeles buying toys for dozens of children who would be coming to the Lincoln Heights Optimist Club party the following day.

“No guns, no guns,” Vargas said as he browsed through the aisles of a store and finally reached for a Dream Girl doll. “Now, this is real nice. I’ll take a half dozen.”

By lunchtime, Vargas and fellow Optimist member Blackie Mata had picked out more than 50 dolls, games, race cars and other toys from various shops near Third and Wall streets.

“Andy’s a very good person,” said Mata, who has known Vargas for 30 years and carries a photograph of one of his six grandchildren in her wallet. “Everybody in the community knows him and likes him.”

The next day at the Christmas party, Vargas played host to 100 elementary school children crowded into the Los Angeles Boys’ and Girls’ Club in Lincoln Heights. While a magician and clown entertained the children, Vargas worked behind the scenes, passing out McDonald’s hamburgers and 10-pound frozen turkeys to every child.

“If you think of someone who won the lottery, you think: ‘That person would be doing this?’ ” said George Mauney, a longtime friend of Vargas. “Helping children is his life.”

Three days before Christmas, Vargas stood outside the Bank of America in Lincoln Heights, handing out fruit and toys to children on the street. Every year, the Lincoln Heights Chamber of Commerce and local merchants sponsor a three-day gift-giving event. Vargas’ responsibilities included going door-to-door to collect money from the merchants.

“Boy, that wasn’t easy,” Vargas said as he watched hundreds of children line up for their free stocking along North Broadway. “Sometimes, you have to go back four or five times to the same store.”

Despite the hard work, Vargas seems happiest when he is in the midst of a charity event. He never complains of fatigue, although he spends most mornings and afternoons working on some philanthropic project.

“He never slows down,” said Stella George, a fellow philanthropist and friend. “He makes plans like he’s going to help children forever.”

Although Vargas tried to help others long before he won the lottery, he did not have the influence or the financial means to make a difference, his friends say. Since winning, however, he has learned how to use his fame and instant wealth to become a more effective leader.

Petrified of speaking in front of crowds, Vargas enrolled in a Toastmasters speaking club and is “dangerous now when you give him the mike,” said Richard Enriquez, former president of the Lincoln Heights Optimist Club and lieutenant governor of the southeast region of Optimist International.

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Vargas, who almost exclusively wore old slacks and golf shirts in the past, now wears suits when he attends formal functions and business meetings.

“He’s more polished and experienced than he used to be,” Enriquez said. “But his personality hasn’t really changed. Winning the lottery simply has allowed him to take his charitable gestures to a higher level.”

More often than not, Vargas is described as an “average Joe,” which sometimes hinders him when he takes on leadership roles.

“He’s still learning,” Enriquez said. “When he’s in charge of the Optimist Club meetings, he sometimes jumps around from item to item on the agenda. It’s more fun now, but less business. He has to learn how to be more of a bureaucrat.”

Born in Colorado, Vargas moved to California when he was 16, first to San Francisco and then to the Los Angeles area. After serving 19 months in the Navy, he worked as a dishwasher, a grass cutter and a welder at Pacific Pump, now known as Ingersoll-Dresser Pump Company in Huntington Park.

With $300 in the bank, he then began selling clothes out of his home, and in 1963 opened a small business in Lincoln Heights that manufactured girls’ uniforms. After winning the lottery, Vargas gave the business to one of his sons.

Vargas, who struggled to send his youngest son to UC Berkeley, said he wants to help others pay for college because he knows how hard it is to succeed without an advanced degree. Although Vargas’ wife and children support him in his philanthropic efforts, they say they prefer to keep their privacy and stay out of news stories.

“While I was at Pacific Pump, I was president of the union and wanted a job in management,” Vargas said. “But because of my lack of education, I couldn’t do it.”

Despite his wealth, Vargas has retained a simple lifestyle. He still lives in the same three-bedroom house he and his family moved into 33 years ago. And he kept his Ford Escort station wagon for more than two years after winning the lottery, eventually trading it in for a gold Acura Legend.

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“The only thing that’s different is that now I can help more people,” Vargas said. “Someone once said to me: ‘You’re a nut. You could be having a good time now.’ And I said: ‘I am having a good time.’ ”

Because Vargas rarely broadcasts the fact that he is a lottery winner, many of his friends didn’t find out about his good fortune until years later.

“I didn’t know he was a millionaire until someone told me about two to three years later,” said Jesus Rodriguez, a fellow Optimist Club member who has known Vargas for seven years. “He was giving to all these charities, and I asked someone: ‘What’s up with Andy? Is he a millionaire or something?’ That’s when I found out.”

Other people still have trouble believing Vargas is a millionaire, especially when they see him digging through the trash for aluminum cans.

“One guy I know saw me on the street picking up cans, and he told this other guy: ‘No way. That can’t be the same guy who won the lottery. I saw him picking up cans,’ ” Vargas said, laughing.

Although Vargas still collects cans because “it’s a habit that’s hard to stop,” his biggest fund-raising effort is his annual golf tournament at the Montebello Municipal Golf Course.

In 1989, the first year of the tournament, 68 players competed. Last year, 137 golfers paid the $100 registration fee to take part in the charity event.

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The biggest supporter of Vargas’ golf tournament is Riordan, who has sent players from his law firm to the tournament since its inception.

Vargas met Riordan in 1988 at a banquet where they both were honored for their support of Los Angeles schools. Vargas later called Riordan at his law practice to invite him to play in his golf tournament, not knowing who he was or what he did.

“I thought he was a schoolteacher or something,” Vargas said.

Moved by Vargas’ down-to-earth personality, Riordan agreed and sent 13 players to the first Andy Vargas golf tournament.

“I think he’s an incredible role model,” Riordan said. “I mean, here’s a man who won the lottery and is giving it to education. His sincerity and generosity is almost to a point of compulsion.

“I felt very moved by what he was doing and wanted to help.”

Loyalty works both ways, and during last year’s mayoral campaign, Vargas proved to be one of Riordan’s biggest supporters. He spoke at several campaign fund-raisers in Riordan’s behalf, including one at the Biltmore Hotel in front of 500 people.

Although Vargas said he enjoyed being thrust into the middle of the campaign, his goal isn’t to gain more publicity. Rather, his dream is to expand his foundation so that Glen Alta graduates can receive scholarships throughout their college career.

“I wish I had a zillion dollars to help people with,” Vargas said. “That would make me happy.”