RALEIGH – Paula Lampkins of Winston-Salem stepped forward on Tuesday to collect her $1 million Powerball prize. She had one of two tickets sold in North Carolina that were just one red Powerball away from hitting the jackpot on Saturday night.

Lampkins checked the lottery’s website early Sunday morning to check the winning numbers from the night before. As the numbers on-screen kept matching those on her ticket, Lampkins knew she had won something. She looked up the prize for matching all five white balls.

“I saw the little comma after the ‘1’ and I said, ‘Oh my God, I think I won $1 million,’” Lampkins recalled.

Lampkins, a hospital housekeeper, said winning the lottery means she will no longer need to live with a roommate.

“The first thing I want to do is get a house,” she said. “And help my roommate, because she was there for me.”

Lampkins, a native of Winston-Salem, said she would share some of her after-tax winnings of $680,000 with her nine brothers and sisters and two adult children. She purchased her winning ticket at Sheetz #411 located N.C. 150 North in Winston-Salem.

The other $1 million prize won in Saturday’s drawing, which has yet to be claimed, was won by a ticket sold at Ingles Market #62 on Leicester Highway in Asheville. The drawing also created a pair of $10,000-winning tickets that matched four white balls and the red Powerball. The tickets were sold at Sam’s Mart on Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte and at Lowe’s Foods on Carolina Beach Road in Wilmington.

In anticipation of Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, the jackpot estimate has been increased to $360 million if taken as an annuity or $229.2 million if taken as a lump sum. Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. every Wednesday and Saturday. The game is played in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. North Carolina has had three Powerball jackpot winners of $74.5 million to $141.4 million.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Forsyth County education programs received more than $80.5 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 $2.8 billion for these initiatives statewide.