Michelle and Dennis Woolwine of Charles Town, West Virginia are dreaming of life on the Outer Banks after they won a $1 million Powerball prize.
“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.”
The couple’s good fortune happened during their vacation when they stopped at the Circle K on South Croatan Highway in Kill Devil Hills.
“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.”
Dennis bought a $2 Powerball ticket for the July 13, drawing. He found out he won the next 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.”
They claimed the prize Friday morning at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, they took home $707,501. In addition to saving for retirement, they plan to set up college funds for their two children.
“I have goosebumps,” Dennis said when he got the check. “It still doesn’t feel real.”
The 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 Saturday’s Powerball drawing is $75 million or $49.1 million cash.
Ticket sales from draw games like Powerball make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $650 million a year for the state. For details on how lottery funds made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.
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