RALEIGH – About a year ago, Constance Stiles of Franklin in Macon County started occasionally playing the lottery with her nephew, Donnie Stiles of Robbinsville. They played for fun just whenever the mood hit either one of them, agreeing to share the prize if one of them got lucky.

“We have no plan, no formula, nothing” Donnie Stiles said. “It’s just a little bit of fun.”

Then, on Sunday, Oct. 23, Constance Stiles, a purchasing officer, called her nephew and asked him to check the numbers from the Powerball drawing the night before because they may have won big.

“I remember being really excited and saying, ‘Double check. Look it up. Make sure I’m not dreaming,’” Constance Stiles recalled telling her nephew.

So Donnie Stiles, who manages a local branch of a credit union, checked the numbers. He confirmed the ticket had matched all five white balls in the Oct. 22 Powerball drawing, winning $200,000.

“Is this real?” Donnie Stiles asked his aunt. “Are you sure? This doesn’t happen. It happens to somebody else.”

The two collected their winnings at NCEL headquarters on Wednesday. After taxes were withheld, they each received $68,000. Constance Stiles says she had no immediate plans for her winnings. “All I can do right now is smile,” she said. Donnie Stiles said he planned to use his share to create an emergency fund.

The win was the largest amount won so far in Powerball in either of the two small mountain counties. The winning ticket was purchased at Dowdle Mountain Pit Stop on Dowdle Mountain Road in Franklin.

From March 30, 2006 through June 30, 2011, Macon County players won more than $6 million in lottery prizes, while lottery players in Graham County won more than $997,000. During the same time period, Macon County education programs received more than $6 million in lottery funds and Graham County more than $1.8 million. By law, those funds support teacher salaries, school construction, need-based college scholarships and prekindergarten programs.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.1 billion for the education initiatives it serves statewide.