A $150,000 lottery prize will let Shirley Tolson of Shannon repair the damage Hurricane Florence caused to her home.
“It’s a blessing,” Tolson said. “The wind and rain damaged the roof and chimney. We were also hit by Hurricane Matthew a couple of years ago, so it’s wonderful to have this.”
The tax accountant’s good fortune happened Monday when she stopped by Merritt’s Jewelry and Pawn on East Fourth Avenue in Red Springs and bought a Holiday Cash scratch-off ticket.
“I rarely play the lottery,” Tolson said. “But I saw the new ticket and decided to get one.”
She scratched the $5 ticket Tuesday morning.
“I had to show my daughter to make sure I wasn’t seeing things,” Tolson said. “I asked her, ‘Is this what I think it is?’ she looked at it and said, ‘Yes momma it is.’”
Tolson immediately drove to lottery headquarters in Raleigh to claim her prize. She started dancing and singing when she got her check.
“Woooh!” Tolson exclaimed. “If ever there was a reason to dance, this is it.”
After required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $105,753.
Holiday Cash launched this month with four top prizes of $150,000. Tolson is the first player to claim a top prize. Holiday Cash is a first of its kind scratch-off ticket for N.C. lottery players. It’s printed on plastic and the non-printed area is transparent.
All holiday scratch-off tickets can be entered into one of two second-chance drawings for a chance to win $50,000. The deadline to enter the first drawing is Nov. 30.
Ticket sales from games like Holiday Cash make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.