ALBUQUERQUE – It’s going to be a day at the beach for Loving resident Adama Vasquez. After winning a $250,000 jackpot from the New Mexico Lottery, Vasquez said she plans to take a vacation to Hawaii. She said surfing lessons are out, but poolside refreshments will be topical during her tropical adventure. Vasquez beat odds of 1 in 435,897 to land the top prize in the Roadrunner Cash game. Her quick-pick ticket for the May 22 drawing matched the winning numbers of 15, 25, 29, 30 and 37. The winner, who bought her ticket at Food Jet No. 2 located at 3102 National Parks Highway in Carlsbad, discovered her good fortune after checking her ticket with winning numbers published in a newspaper. “I had to read it five times,” Vasquez recalled for lottery officials in Albuquerque Tuesday. “I didn’t know if I was dreaming.”
Above: Adama Vasquez, winner of the $250,000 Jackpot
She showed the ticket to her husband, Ben. “He looked at me like I was crazy,” Vasquez said. Vasquez claimed her prize in the company of several relatives including granddaughter Candice Molina who attended the University of New Mexico on a Legislative Lottery Scholarship funded by lottery ticket sales. Molina graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2008 and then earned a master’s degree. “It’s nice that I was able to go to school,” Molina said. “And the scholarship really helped my parents, that’s for sure.” Vasquez’s youngest daughter Annette also attended UNM on a Legislative Lottery Scholarship. She earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree and now works as a nurse practitioner in Roswell.
Legislative Lottery College Scholarships
Since 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has raised $520 million for education and more than 75,300 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships. As of the Spring 2011 semester, more than 2,200 students from Eddy County have received $9 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships.