RALEIGH – Wednesday morning, Leslie Brown of Greensboro was enjoying her routine of making coffee and checking her numbers on the lottery’s website. That’s when Brown, a regular Carolina Cash 5 player, learned that someone had hit the jackpot the night before.

“There's a winner somewhere,” Brown thought to herself as she began to compare her numbers to the winning numbers. “All five numbers,” she said. “Oh my God – I'm the winner!”

She purchased her ticket, worth $133,046 in the April 24 drawing, at the Harris Teeter on West Market Street in Greensboro.

“This is unreal,” Brown said as she collected her prize money at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. “This is a blessing.”

Brown, an engineer, had plans for her $90,471 after-tax winnings. While she is considering a cruise through the Panama Canal or in Alaskan waters, Brown’s top priorities are to pay her bills and buy an essential household appliance.

“I’ve been in my house 21 years and I’ve never had a dishwasher,” she said.

Through June 30, 2011, Guilford County education programs received more than $102.1 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teacher’s salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships, and prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.35 billion for these initiatives statewide.