William Holshue of Maggie Valley said he plans to use a $101,070 Cash 5 jackpot to make his children’s dreams of a college education come true.

“My son is fifteen, so college is just around the corner for him,” Holshue explained. “My daughter is only eleven, but she is already talking about going to MIT. This check is going towards both of them.”

The electrical contractor purchased the $1 ticket for the Sunday drawing from Maggie Valley Mart on Soco Road in Maggie Valley. The ticket beat odds of one in 749,398 to win the drawing. Holshue has been picking the same numbers for over a year, based on a combination of his and his family’s birthdays.

“I was doing my invoices, and the Cash 5 drawing was on in the background,” Holshue said. “I said, ‘Wait, I think those are my numbers’. I had to rewind it and, sure as the world, those were my numbers.”

Holshue claimed the jackpot Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $71,256.

Ticket sales from draw games like Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $600 million dollars a year for education. For details on how $2.8 million raised by the lottery supported education programs in Haywood County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website, https://www.nclottery.com.