RALEIGH – Annette Bell of Lexington plans to use the $150,000 prize she won in the lottery’s Hot Summer Second-Chance drawing to pay off her car and save for retirement.

“I was hoping that one day I’d win a big drawing but I never really thought that I would,” Annette Bell said. “I feel so blessed and lucky. This is just awesome.”

After state and federal taxes were withheld, Bell received a check worth $103,800.

Second-chance drawings are a feature of some instant scratch-off games, allowing players to enter their non-winning tickets online for another chance to win. The Hot Summer Second-Chance drawing let players use their non-winning Hot 5’s, Red Hot 5’s and White Hot 5’s tickets to enter to win one of 30 prizes of $5,000 and one $150,000 prize. Bell’s winning entry was randomly selected from a total of 601,282 made in the drawing, held on Sept. 10.

Ticket sales have made it possible for the lottery to raise more than $3.4 billion for the state. North Carolina Education Lottery net proceeds will be used this year to help pay salaries of teachers and teacher assistants, for pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, school construction and repair, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.

For details on how more than $45 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Davidson County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.