A $5 scratch-off purchase will enable Bernadad Cumbie of Greensboro to help her son fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer after she won a $400,000 prize Saturday morning.
“I was so happy that I could call my son and tell him I won $400,000,” she said.
Cumbie, a grocery worker at Whole Foods, said she will use the money to help her son pay for law school. She bought her lucky $35,000,000 Blowout ticket from the Quick Mart on Randleman Road in Greensboro.
“I turned to the cashier and told him, ‘I just won big,’” she recalled. “He started jumping up and down and gave me a big hug.”
Cumbie said she has played the lottery for a long time and always knew her turn would come.
“I just kept seeing all these winners in North Carolina and kept believing that could be me,” she said.
Cumbie arrived at lottery headquarters Monday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $285,001.
In addition to helping her son, she said she will use the money to pay some bills.
The $35,000,000 Blowout game debuted in January 2022 with four top prizes of $400,000. Since Cumbie won the last top prize in the game, the lottery will begin the process of ending the game.
Ticket sales from scratch-offs make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $33 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Guilford County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.