A West Virginia couple says they can fulfill their dream of retiring on the Outer Banks and sending their two children to college after claiming the $1 million Powerball winning ticket purchased earlier this month while on vacation in Kill Devil Hills.
Michelle and Dennis Woolwine of Charles Town, WVa., picked up their winnings on Friday at N.C. Education Lottery headquarters in Raleigh.
“I have goosebumps,” Dennis said when he got the check that after taxes totaled $707,501. “It still doesn’t feel real.”
“We were on the way to check into the beach house when the gas light on my car came on,” Dennis said. “I went inside to get a drink and decided I’d also get a lottery ticket. I don’t normally play, but since we were in our paradise I figured I’d start dreaming.”
They stopped at the Circle K at the corner of South Croatan Highway and Colington Road in Kill Devil Hills, where Dennis bought a $2 Powerball ticket for the July 13 drawing.
They found out they had won the following morning.
“I felt like the breath got sucked out of me,” Dennis said. “I looked at the ticket at least 50 times.”
“When he showed me the ticket I couldn’t believe it,” Michelle said. “I started screaming I was so excited.”
In addition to saving for retirement, they plan to set up college funds for their two children.
“It’s always been a dream of ours to retire to the Outer Banks,” Michelle said. “It’s our spot. We vacation there every year.”
“This is just incredible,” Dennis said. “Now that we won, we can do this. We can actually invest in our dreams.”
Their ticket matched the numbers on the five white balls to win $1,000,000. It beat odds of one in 11.7 million.
The jackpot for this Saturday’s Powerball drawing is $75 million or $49.1 million cash.
According to the N.C Education Lottery website, education programs in Dare County received $2,102,327 in lottery funds during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The N.C. General Assembly decides how to use the money provided to the state by the lottery each year.
This story originally appeared on OBXToday.com. Read More local stories here.
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