ATLANTA — A Norcross woman has picked up an instant $300,000 prize from the Georgia Lottery. Tonya Shorter, 48, played the instant game Match & Win, garnering a $300,000 top prize.
Shorter claimed her prize March 3 at the Georgia Lottery District Office in Duluth.
Quick Food Mart, 6910 Dawson Blvd. in Norcross, sold the winning ticket, and Shorter scratched it in the car.
“I almost fell out,” the mother of two recalled.
A tax examiner, Shorter is in disbelief in winning her prize.
“I want to buy a house, pay off bills and buy a car for my daughter,” she shared.
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.