LANSING, December 18, 2007 – It was a very happy birthday for Carolyn Clement of Frankfort! She won not one, but two prizes of $250,000 playing Mega Millions!

The lucky winner, who claimed a total of $500,000 on her 77th birthday yesterday, said she purchased a multi-draw ticket and thought it had run out of draws, so she threw it away and purchased another. Little did she know that ticket had one draw, the winning draw, remaining. Both tickets had the same set of own pick numbers, based on birthdays, so both tickets matched all five white ball numbers in the Dec. 14 drawing.

Clement said she and her son went through the garbage to find the second ticket. She was “thrilled to pieces” with the win.

She plans to use the winnings to pay bills, invest and “relax”. Both winning tickets were purchased at Bayview Party Store, 531 Main St., in Frankfort.

Mega Millions is a multi-state lottery game in Michigan, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Wagers cost $1 each and tickets may be purchased at nearly 11,000 Michigan Lottery retailers statewide. Sales close at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday for the 11 p.m. drawing.

Over 95 cents of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets is returned to the state in the form of contributions to the state School Aid Fund, prizes to players and commissions to retailers. In fiscal year 2007, the contribution to schools was $748.9 million. Since its inception in 1972, the Lottery has contributed more than $14.3 billion to education in Michigan.

For additional information, please visit the Lottery’s Web site at https://www.michiganlottery.com/.

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