Four players won top prizes of $125,000 each.

Lucille Quintana of Albuquerque purchased winning raffle ticket number 6564 on Nov. 3 after filling her gas tank at Ross Oil Co. Inc. at 700 Grand Ave. in Las Vegas. On New Year’s Day, Quintana asked her sister to check the winning raffle ticket numbers at the lottery’s website. “I started screaming that I had a winning ticket,” she recalled. The 65-year-old grandmother plans to buy a new car with part of her $125,000 prize.

Farmington resident Shannon Notah purchased winning ticket number 17627 on Nov. 20 after a co-worker told her about the game. With the drawing still six weeks away, Notah hid her ticket inside a DVD case for the miniseries “Dreamkeeper.” Notah learned she had a winning ticket on Wednesday when she checked it at a lottery retailer. The 28-year-old mother said winning $125,000 accelerates her plan to attend dental hygiene school in Arizona. Notah, who has only twice played New Mexico Lottery games, bought her winning ticket at Circle S Liquor No. 1 at 3000 E. Bloomfield Highway in Farmington.

On Dec. 11, Joann Morris of Albuquerque purchased raffle tickets as Christmas presents for her husband and son. The family agreed that if any of their tickets won, they would all share the prize. On New Year’s Day, Morris went to the lottery’s website and saw that ticket number 31712 – the one given to her 26-year-old son, Phil Morris – was a $125,000 winner. “We just started dancing in the kitchen,” Morris recalled. With their share of the prize, Morris and her husband, Joe, will take a trip to Hawaii and make investments. Their son plans to buy a new truck and make a down payment on a house. The Morris’ winning ticket was bought at Circle K No. 1313 located at 1316 Yale SE in Albuquerque.

Christine Vallejos of Albuquerque purchased winning ticket number 98111 on New Year’s Eve at 6 p.m., 90 minutes before the drawing. “When I bought it, I said to my husband ‘This is it. This is the winning ticket,’” Vallejos recalled. After typing in her ticket number at the lottery’s website on Wednesday, Vallejos was greeted with a message reading “Congratulations.” “I was alone in my house, but I was screaming,” the 27-year-old woman said. Vallejos, who bought her ticket at Conoco Phillips No. 6304 at 9200 Eagle Ranch NW in Albuquerque, plans to use part of her $125,000 prize to take her husband, Greg, to Tahiti.

Michael Nolen of Las Cruces purchased a raffle ticket once a week in the 10 weeks leading up to the drawing. Ticket number 21708 purchased on Nov. 28 was drawn for the $50,000 prize. Nolen’s brother Danny attends the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro on a Legislative Lottery Scholarship. Nolen, 33, bought his winning ticket at Pic Quik No. 10 at 825 Avenida de Mesilla in Las Cruces.

Edgewood resident Robert Wise, 43, claimed the $25,000 raffle prize. A few hours before the drawing, Wise purchased winning ticket number 95229 at Albertson’s No. 986 at 3542 Zafarno Drive in Santa Fe.

Ticket sales for the New Year’s Eve Raffle began on Oct. 28. The game consisted of 125,000 tickets of which 100,140 were sold. Winning ticket numbers were drawn on Dec. 31 from only those tickets sold. The game consisted of 106 prizes. In addition to the top six prizes, 100 winning ticket numbers were drawn for prizes of $500 each. The game’s prizes totaled $625,000.

$337 Million Raised for Education

Net revenues from the sale of all lottery games benefit Legislative Lottery Scholarships, an in-state tuition assistance program for New Mexico residents attending public colleges and universities.

Since its inception in 1996, the lottery has raised more than $337 million for college tuition and school construction and repairs in New Mexico. In the last decade, more than 48,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships. Information about Legislative Lottery Scholarships is available at www.nmlottery.com