RALEIGH – Like many people, Brenda Crisp of Burlington plays Powerball occasionally. While she enjoyed dreaming about what it might be like to win, it was someone else’s dream that led to her winning $1 million.

“A guy I work with told me he had a dream I won the lottery,” Crisp said Friday. “It hasn’t really set in yet that I did.”

After hearing her co-worker’s premonition, Crisp decided to try her luck in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. She bought a Quick Pick ticket at the Food Lion on Ramada Road in Burlington, letting the computer choose her numbers at random. She matched all five white balls in the June 27 drawing, beating odds of 1 in 5.1 million.

“It was a shock to win,” she said. “I was really surprised about it.”

Crisp said she planned to use her winnings, which totaled $680,001 after taxes, to pay bills and maybe buy a house.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2011, Alamance County education programs received more than $26.1 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.

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