Lottery grows as recent winners celebrate

The jackpots in two big Georgia Lottery games are growing.

The prize for tonight's Mega Millions drawing is at an estimated $12 million, lottery officials said. And the jackpot for Wednesday's  Powerball has grown to $170 million.

Winning even a much smaller prize, in the tens of thousands of dollars, is "certainly a life-changing thing," lottery spokeswoman Tandi Reddick said.

By way of example, lottery officials are telling the stories of two recent winners, both of them students who say the money will help pay for their educations:

• Mireyda Vazquez was the fourth person this year to scratch out the top prize -- $45,000 -- in the "Shades of Green" instant game. The 19-year-old stay-at-home mom and aspiring attorney turned in her ticket Friday. She hopes to get her high school diploma so she can go on to college, she told officials. She bought her ticket at the Mills Convenience Store, at 3132 Ellington Airline Road in Dearing, and scratched it in her car.
• Everett Slay, a retail manager and business student at Mercer University in Macon, won a $360,302 "Fantasy 5″ jackpot. He matched all five winning numbers in the March 2 drawing, which started at $50,000 and rolled over three times when there were no previous winners. Slay, 46, bought his winning "Quik Pik" ticket at the Dixie Food Store, at 2904 Shurling Dr. in Macon. He told officials that he only checked his numbers after a co-worker told him the winning ticket was bought in Macon.

Lottery proceeds help pay for education in Georgia. The revenue -- $11.4 billion so far -- has funded more than a million HOPE scholarships, officials say. And more than a million 4-year-olds have attended the voluntary pre-kindergarten program that receives lottery money.