RALEIGH – Melvin Dula, a resident of Lenoir in Caldwell County, plans to use the $1 million prize he won playing Powerball to pay for his daughter’s education and donate to his church.

Dula purchased his winning Quick Pick ticket from the Rudisill Village Grocery & Oil on Playmore Beach Road, where he worked as a teenager. His $2 Power Play ticket matched all five white balls but not the red Power Ball in the Jan. 11 drawing. He learned of his big win the next day when he looked up the winning numbers online.

“I thought I had hit four numbers and that we had won $200, which was great,” Dula said. “When I saw the other number, it was a whole different feeling. It doesn’t feel real. You can’t prepare for something like that.”
After state and federal taxes were withheld, Dula received a check for $680,000.

“We are very blessed,” Dula added. “I’m very humbled. It’s so hard to believe. We’re going straight to the bank.”

Dula is the second Caldwell County player to win a $1 million prize playing Powerball since the game launched in North Carolina in 2006.

Since the lottery began through June 30 of this year, Caldwell County education programs received more than $14.1 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships and prekindergarten programs. Players in Caldwell County have won more than $25 million in prizes since the lottery’s inception.

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