For Lucy Plyler of Kings Mountain, watching her daughter Hartley find out she got accepted into ClemsonLIFE is something she’ll always remember.

“To see her excitement and her thrill of knowing that she was going just made my day,” Plyler said. “She made me so proud.”

Plyler shared the story of that moment and became one of ten people to win $20,000 as part of the lottery’s N.C. Proud Moments in Education contest.

Plyler said her daughter was born with several disabilities. “We weren’t sure if she would finish high school, or walk, or talk, or be able to run a 5K,” she said. “But she’s done that and more.”

Plyler credits education for helping her daughter get this far. “Because teachers have been helping her and pushing her and with her own personality of giving 110 percent in everything that she does, she has been a success,” she said.

Hartley Plyler will attend ClemsonLIFE this fall. The program supports students with intellectual disabilities as they participate in a postsecondary education on a college campus. The prize money will help pay tuition.

“We never thought we would see this day,” Plyler said. “Hartley has exceeded our expectations. She is going to Clemson, and that is amazing.”

In the N.C. Proud Moments contest, the Education Lottery asked North Carolinians to share their proudest moments in education and how they would use $20,000 to create more proud moments. The lottery received hundreds of moving responses. A panel of judges chose 10 winners from the 100 entries that got the most votes. The contest helped mark the lottery’s 10th anniversary as it raises money to support education programs in North Carolina. Since 2006, the lottery has raised more than $4.6 billion. The winners’ submissions and a video featuring their stories are posted on the N.C. Proud Moments website, located at http://www.ncproudmoments.com/.