RALEIGH – An assistant prekindergarten teacher from Washington is the first player to win $1 million in the lottery’s new $4,000,000 Gold Bullion game. On Saturday morning, Brenda Corprew bought two tickets at the Stop N Go on Park Drive in Washington. Corprew was alone in her bedroom when she scratched the first ticket and realized how much she had won.

“After I saw that $1 million, it was like an explosion,” she recalled. “It was a dream come true.”

Corprew said that the prize money would make a big difference for her and her husband, Melvin.

“My first priority is to buy a house,” she said. “We have been renting for seven years.”

Rather than claim her $1 million prize in annuity payments of $50,000 a year for 20 years, Corprew chose the $600,000 cash option. The after-tax value of her prize totaled $408,006.

“It feels good, that’s all I can say,” she said. “It’s like a load has been lifted off my shoulders.”

The $4,000,000 Gold Bullion game started Feb. 12 with three top prizes of $4 million and seven prizes of $1 million. Players who win the game’s top prize have the option of claiming it as a 20-year annuity or a lump sum option that can be claimed in either cash or gold bullion.

Along with draw games, sales of instant tickets make it possible for the N.C. Education Lottery to raise money to benefit specific education programs in all 100 counties.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Beaufort County education programs received more than $11.2 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 college scholarships and financial aid based on need.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.6 billion for these initiatives statewide.