A Gastonia woman who used a combination of family members’ birthdays to pick her lottery numbers won more than $319,000 on Monday.
Vanessa Currence said she’ll use some of the prize money to host a Thanksgiving dinner for her nine children and 27 grandchildren.
“This is something to be grateful for,” Currence said. “I’m going to treat my family real good. I’m going to rent a place and just have my nine kids and 27 grandkids all together.”
Currence won $319,883 in the Cash 5 jackpot and will take home $221,519 after state and federal tax withholdings.
She beat the odds of 1 in 749,398 with a $1 ticket that she bought at the Gastonia Express Mart on South York Road in Gastonia.
“I wasn’t expecting to win,” Currence said. “When my son told me to check my ticket, I just looked at him, and then when I saw the numbers I started jumping around.”
The Cash 5 jackpot raised more than $634 million for North Carolina last year.
