When Carrie Edwards of Midlothian, Virginia, won $150,000 in the lottery, she didn’t think twice about what to do with it.
“As soon as that divine windfall happened and came down upon my shoulders, I knew exactly what I needed to do with it,” Edwards shared at a press conference. “And I knew I needed to give it all away, because I’ve been so blessed, and I want this to be an example of how other people, when they’re blessed, can bless other people.”
Edwards hit it big in the Sept. 8 Virginia Lottery drawing after asking her phone’s talking ChatGPT app to help her choose numbers. She recalled joking, “I’m like, ChatGPT, talk to me […] Do you have numbers for me?” That playful request ended up matching four of the first five numbers, plus the Powerball. Thanks to paying an extra dollar for the Power Play, her prize tripled from $50,000 to $150,000.
But when Edwards first got the notification, she wasn’t convinced.
“I’m sitting in a meeting, and I look at my phone and it says, ‘Please collect your lottery winnings.’ And I thought, ‘I think it’s a scam. I know I didn’t win,’” she said with a laugh.
Once she confirmed it was real, her heart knew where the money belonged: her three favorite organizations.
“The first [charity] is the AFTD (The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration),” she explained, honoring her late husband, who died of the disease in 2024.
Her second choice is Shalom Farms, a regenerative farm in Richmond. “It’s the greatest organization, because they understand that , when it comes down to it, we all are responsible for helping each other in this life and helping community, and helping those who don’t have what we have. [It’s] something that they are focused on through their food justice and food equity program.”
And her final donation will go to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which is “very near and dear to her heart” because her father was a fighter pilot and it was his favorite charity.
For Edwards, the joy wasn’t in winning, but in giving.
“Because it’s a windfall I didn’t expect, and it’s certainly going to help those in need,” she said.
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