RALEIGH – Holly Benfield, a resident of Morganton in Burke County, plans to use the $200,000 prize she won playing Extreme Green to help her mother and maybe purchase a jet-ski.

She was at a friend’s house when she learned of her big win.

“At first I thought I had won two dollars,” Benfield said. “Then I kept scratching off those zeroes. I couldn’t believe it. I started crying.”

After taxes were withheld, Benfield received a check for $135,446. She purchased the winning ticket at Mike’s Exxon on Burkemont Avenue in Morganton.

As of Wednesday morning, four more $200,000 prizes remain to be claimed in the Extreme Green game.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2011, Burke County education programs received more than $19.8 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.
To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for these initiatives statewide.