RALEIGH – Larry Weikert of Corapeake is the first to claim one of two tickets worth $137,263 in the Tuesday, April 16 Carolina Cash 5 drawing. Weikert received a check for $93,340 after taxes were withheld. He purchased his winning ticket at the Family Foods of Corapeake on N.C. 32 North in Corapeake.

The second winning ticket holder has yet to come forward. That ticket, also worth $137,263, was sold at the Ingles on Greenwood Road in Spruce Pine. Winners have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim their prizes.

Ticket sales for games such as Carolina Cash 5 have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.6 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Gates County education programs received more than $3.1 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.