LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A group of middle school employees carpooled to the Kentucky Lottery headquarters Tuesday — with a winning $1 million Powerball ticket stashed inside a math book.
The group consists of 30 current and former employees of a Boone County middle school. They refer to themselves as the "Jones 30", named after Rector A. Jones Middle School in Florence where they all met.
According to lottery officials, the group's organizer - a retired math teacher - realized the day after the Saturday Powerball drawing that her group matched the five white balls, winning the game’s second prize of $1 million.
“No one looks in a math book,” she joked. “I knew it would be safe there... page 200. I have checked this a thousand times.”
The group has been playing the lottery together for years.
“We all taught at the same school at one point or another,” one winner said. “We’ve got counselors, admins, special ed teachers, the school nurse. Some have moved on or retired but we still continue to do it. We’ve remained buddies for all of these years.”
Over the last eight years, they have been pooling their money to play. After choosing a set of numbers in 2019, they continued to use those same numbers every week.
“Our math teacher and assistant principal pulled them out of a hat,” one winner said. “At first, we didn’t have the right amount of numbers to choose from, so we drew again. Thank goodness we did.”
Each employee ended up receiving a check for $24,000 after taxes.
Officials said some members of the group plan to invest the money while others plan to use it for travel or home expenses.
“A lot of us have gone on trips together, we’ve had babies and grandbabies over the years,” one winner said. “We always have so much fun. It’s just cool to win as a group and share this experience.”
The group told lottery officials they will continue their tradition of playing the Kentucky Lottery as another fun way to stay in touch.
The Kroger located in Hebron will receive $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.
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