Natural Bridge Cafeteria Worker Wins $3,000,000 in 'Lunch Money'

CARTHAGE, NY (05/19/2011)(readMedia)-- Forty-three-year-old Barbara Furney of Natural Bridge spends her days collecting money from students at the cashier line in the Black River Elementary School cafeteria. Today she collected some lunch money of her own from the New York Lottery. Furney hit the $3,000,000 top prize on the Lottery's Magnificent Millions instant ticket. The mother of two said she was so shocked that she sat in her car for half an hour staring at the winning ticket in disbelief.

"I had just gotten my hair done and I decided to stop for a soda and a Lottery ticket. I scratched the ticket in the car and when I saw the word 'jackpot' I just stared in disbelief," she explained. "When they scanned it for me in the store and verified it was a three million dollar winner I simply went back and sat in the car for thirty minutes. I was dumbfounded."

Furney bought her $3,000,000 winner on April 30th at the Carthage Market on Riverside Drive in Carthage. She claimed her prize on May 2nd at the Lottery's Customer Service Center in Syracuse.

Furney says she has no plans to retire now that she is a multi-millionaire. "I love my job. I don't plan to leave any time soon but I do have some plans for the money. I've always wanted a gazebo for the yard so that will be my first purchase. I'll give some to my two boys and then maybe start thinking about a family vacation."

As with most instant games, the top prize on the Magnificent Millions instant ticket is paid as an annuity. Furney will collect her $3,000,000 prize as $150,000 a year for 20 years. She will receive an annual net check totaling $99,045 through 2030.

Furney is now the second Lottery millionaire of 2011 from Jefferson County. She joins William Traynor of LaFargeville who won $1,000,000 on the Lucky Tables instant ticket in March.

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing over $3 billion in fiscal year 2010-2011 to help support education in New York State. The Lottery's aid represents over 15 percent of total state education funding to local school districts.

New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education. It takes into account both a school district's size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.

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