Macon woman wins $1M Powerball prize

ATLANTA — A Macon woman is celebrating a million-dollar Georgia Lottery win. Shelia Dawson, 60, won $1 million by matching the first five numbers in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing.

Dawson discovered the exciting news when she called the Georgia Lottery hotline Wednesday morning.

“I thought I was dreaming at first,” said Dawson, a maintenance technician. “Surprisingly, I’m really calm. I guess it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Discount Tobacco, located at 4224 Bloomfield Road in Macon, sold the lucky Quik Pik ticket.

Winning numbers from the drawing were: 1-17-35-49-54 and the Powerball number was 34.

A mother of four, Dawson said she’ll use the winnings to help her family. She also plans to purchase a new home.

As with all other Georgia Lottery games, proceeds from Powerball will benefit education in the state of Georgia.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $15 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.6 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.3 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

WSBTV