Melanie Melendez of Charlotte immediately picked up the phone to share her exciting news after she won $404,917 playing a digital instant game.

“I called my daughter right away,” she said. “I started hollering on the phone.”

Melendez played a $5 ticket on Nov. 16 and won the top level ‘Epic jackpot’ in the Wheel of Bonuses game, a digital instant game featuring a progressive jackpot that can be won at any time. The odds of that win are 1 in 6.2 million.

“It was spinning and I was just thinking to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if I won,’” she recalled. “You just never know when it can happen.”

Melendez claimed her prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $289,518.

She plans to give some money to her church, pay bills and invest.

In the Wheel of Bonuses digital instant game, a player can play from 50 cents to $30. After Melendez won the jackpot, it restarted at $50,000 and has grown to over $154,000 as of Wednesday morning.

Digital instant games are played exclusively online on the lottery’s website or on the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. Thirty-three different games are available to play online now.

Play Smart, Gift Smart is the N.C. Education Lottery's annual campaign highlighting the risks of youth gambling. The campaign raises awareness that popular holiday scratch-offs should only be gifted to adults. In this year’s campaign, North Carolinians can donate school supplies at a lottery claim center, support a good cause, and get a chance to win a prize. Visit NCEL Play Smart for more information.

Login to leave a comment.

12/05/2024 08:19 - Angela A.

Congrats! I just wish I could experience this or any kind of BIG WIN... Been playing since day one and just losing, losing, and losing. I went 25 straight spins in a row @ $30 and nothing you do the math games are such bad odds, but I keep trying soon or later I will learn.

12/05/2024 07:46 - Steven B.

it could happen to you, and it did.good luck!

12/05/2024 01:07 - William Y.

Wow congratulations to Melendez for her big win ,I’m sure being in nc like my family are we live in a disaster area badly hit ,wish we could hit something half as big ! Bless you and your family and happy holidays!

12/04/2024 10:48 - William A.

Legal thievery. I just spent over $300.00 at $5 a spin. No bonuses or hits over $10. The lottery should be ashamed. I want my Money Back.

12/04/2024 09:08 - althea a.

Congratulations ??????

12/04/2024 07:58 - Priscilla G.

12/04/2024 03:19 - Kenny C.

Congratulations!!!!

Raquel Tate is hopeful and smiling, even though she’s had a rough couple of months.

In early September, the Charlotte woman got into a wreck at night on Interstate 277. She broke a cervical bone in her neck, and about a month later underwent surgery to remove and replace a herniated disk with a titanium piece. She now has screws in her neck and has worn a neck brace since the accident.

But the single mom to two kids, whose friends call her “Rock,” is used to facing challenges.

And for help around the holidays for her younger child, 6-year-old Noble, she’s turning to a familiar resource — the Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte’s Angel Tree program.

The program matches thousands of children in need with anonymous donors who buy them presents for Christmas. In cases where donors don’t step up, Charlotte Observer readers cover the expense by giving to the Empty Stocking Fund, which the Observer has sponsored since about 1920.

Tate’s older child, Nola, has benefited in the past from the program, but has aged out of it at 13.

Following the accident, Tate was expected to spend at least two days in the hospital, but pushed for an earlier discharge so she could get back to her children. She went home after about 16 hours at the hospital.

“I think the best thing for me was to keep moving,” Tate said. “I came home to my kids in the house, out of the hospital. I was still a parent, I never got to stop being a parent… To me, it was a normal day with a neck brace now.”

She said she was diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic about 14 years ago, and relies on monthly disability payments to survive. Tate takes medication and sees a psychiatrist regularly but has been unable to find work, even after trying with the help of a job placement agency.

But despite these difficulties, she said the car accident helped her see things in a new way.

“I think I walked out of the accident a little more thankful, a little more grateful and excited about life,” she said. “I have very gifted children — beautiful, gifted children. Nola is also a rapper. She has (a) big personality… She likes kid-friendly music, she’s big on that. And Mr. Noble, he’s just a dinosaur wizard.”

Tate is thankful for the Angel Tree program because it helps people like her who have “run into bad times.”

“It gives our kids a chance to open something on Christmas day with a smile on their face and they can feel like everyone else.”

Last season, Observer readers donated $143,681 to the campaign. That money raised by the 2023 Empty Stocking Fund campaign allowed The Salvation Army to buy more than 6,100 toys for this year’s campaign, along with gift cards for seniors, foster children and adults with disabilities, Salvation Army officials said.

The 2024 Angel Tree program will help 1,627 families in Mecklenburg and Union counties this holiday season, representing 3,850 children. The program also is providing gift cards to 1,261 seniors and 277 people with disabilities, according to The Salvation Army.

This year, Noble would love a new bike, and toys related to Jurassic Park, Godzilla, King Kong or Transformers. He’s eager to have a tablet, too. Perhaps he’d use it to learn more about dinosaurs.

Noble can already identify many of the prehistoric creatures shown in toys and books, tell you how to pronounce their names and the foods they ate.

“I call him my paleontologist,” Tate added. “That’s what he said he was gonna be.”

Nola really wants an iPad, something that Tate planned to save money for this fall before she got into the wreck.

“She really was kind of feeling like she had to sacrifice this year because I was in an accident,” said Tate, who still hopes to find a way to get her that or something similar to make her Christmas wish come true. “It might not be the pretty, pretty pink one she wants but we can make it happen,” Tate said.

With family out of town, Tate is grateful for the support she gets from close family friends, Wendy and John Marus. Tate and her children will spend Christmas morning with the couple and their four grown children.

Tate hopes she’ll be out of her neck brace by Christmas and will have the chance to gather in the afternoon with some of her own family at her mom’s home in Kannapolis. Her older sister lives in Atlanta and a younger one, whom Tate helped raise, is finishing up her senior year of college in Winston-Salem.

Tate also loves helping others. That’s what she does for the older neighbors in the public housing community in which she lives.

“Not being able to be around my family so much, like my parents and my siblings, I love finding older people to help,” she said.

She regularly checks on neighbors to see if they need assistance with anything or a ride to the store. Lately, things have been different.

“Since I’ve been injured, those same older, elderly people, they were bringing me food, they were, you know, asking, did I need something from the pharmacy? I thought that was beautiful.”

To donate online, visit Empty Stocking Fund CLT.org.

To donate by mail, send checks to: The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte, PO Box 31128, Charlotte NC 28231. Make checks payable to The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte and write “Empty Stocking Fund” in the memo line.

Questions concerning your donation? Call 704-334-4731

The wait is over for music lovers — Spotify Wrapped 2024 is officially here.

The annual summary lets users see how much they listened to their favorite artists down to the minute, how much they like their favorite artists compared to other fans and which artists were the most-streamed.

This year, the streaming service released a map featuring the top five most-streamed songs on the app from cities across the world.

While only 20 cities in the U.S. are on the map, North Carolina is well-represented with two: Charlotte and Asheville. The most-streamed songs in both cities reflect diverse music tastes, with country, pop, rap and alternative tracks. And all but one of the top five Charlotte artists have either performed in the Queen City recently or have plans to soon.

Here were the most-streamed songs in Charlotte and Asheville on Spotify:

Post Malone was in Charlotte in May as headliner for the inaugural Lovin’ Life Music Festival in uptown, along with country artist Shaboozey. He returned in October for his “F-1 Trillion” Tour at PNC Music Pavilion, which drew thousands of fans.

Country artist Morgan Wallen also performed in Charlotte on back-to-back nights in October at Bank of America Stadium, WBTV reported.

Artist Tommy Richman, whose single “Million Dollar Baby” blew up on TikTok this spring, will take the stage at The Underground on March 14 during his nationwide tour.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar, accompanied by R&B artist SZA, is scheduled to perform at Bank of America Stadium on May 3 as part of his recently-announced Grand National Tour.

To access your Spotify Wrapped, go to the app and click on the tab “wrapped” at the top.

You can also visit spotify.com/us/wrapped to find your most-streamed songs of the year.

Similar to Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music has it’s own version of your summary of listening habits called Apple Music Replay.

To find your most-streamed songs on the app, visit replay.apple.music.com.

Have a question about your community you’d like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you’d like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you.

This story was originally published December 4, 2024, 4:25 PM.

With COVID, flu and RSV season in full swing, there’s another respiratory virus North Carolinians should watch out for: walking pneumonia.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NC Department of Health and Human Services has been monitoring a rise in cases in the state. Children’s cases have led to hospitalization in Rowan County, the county’s health department said in a November press release.

UNC Hospitals reported 40 walking pneumonia cases during the last week of October, and the virus is still spreading, according to the North Carolina Medical Society. For comparison, there were almost no cases reported from the hospital chain during the same week last year.

The recent uptick in cases is due to a bacteria called Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Dr. Zach Willis, an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at UNC Children’s Hospital, told The Charlotte Observer.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a type of bacteria that can lead to respiratory tract infections, according to the CDC. It can damage the lining of the respiratory tract, including the throat, windpipe, and lungs.

“It can make you sick … but the vast majority of people who get it don’t need to be hospitalized,” Willis said. “Somebody can have walking pneumonia and it can be caused by influenza or RSV, even COVID.”

While symptoms may be mild for most, there are some groups that should be especially careful when it comes to the virus.

Here’s everything you need to know about walking pneumonia.

The most susceptible groups to pneumonia are young children and older adults, but the virus can affect teenagers and school-aged children, Willis said.

“They can get this and be really sick for a while,” said Willis. “However, that group of teenagers and school-aged kids are generally much less likely to require coming into the hospital compared to younger children and older folks.”

Severe cases can occur especially in young children and people with weakened immune systems, Rowan County’s health department said. Serious complications could include worsening asthma, severe pneumonia or, in rare cases, brain inflammation.

The most common symptoms of walking pneumonia include fever, cough and difficulty breathing, Willis said, adding that some people can experience unusually high fevers.

“Some patients can have a fever of 103 or 104 degrees that goes on for several days,” said Willis. “That’s higher than most parents are used to seeing when their kids have a cold or ear infections.”

According to Cleveland Clinic, other symptoms can include:

Walking pneumonia symptoms can go away on their own, but doctors can treat them with antibiotics, Willis said.

When mycoplasma is the cause of the virus, clinicians typically use azithromycin, a common drug for bacterial infections, to treat walking pneumonia.

Azithromycin comes as a tablet or liquid that is usually taken for one to five days, according to the National Institutes of Health.

There is no vaccine for Mycoplasma pneumoniae (i.e. walking pneumonia), but you can help prevent infections by practicing handwashing and good cough hygiene — coughing into your elbow or wearing a mask, Willis said.

Those who are diagnosed with walking pneumonia should avoid crowded settings, such as school or work, to reduce the chance of spreading the virus.

Walking pneumonia’s peak has likely already happened in North Carolina, Willis said, but cases are still spreading. Doctors are expecting a surge in other respiratory viruses as we inch closer to late December holidays.

“The statistics I’m seeing are showing that it probably has peaked and is starting to wane, and it’s going to be replaced very soon by influenza, RSV and probably COVID as well,” Willis said. “But we do have vaccines for all of those things.”

Health officials have named this spike the “tripledemic,” which this year includes walking pneumonia in the group of illnesses, according to Charlotte-based Trucore Laboratories (which is offering free testing in the area this holiday season).

Almost everyone is eligible for the COVID and flu vaccines, and RSV vaccines are available for infants and adults over the age of 60, Willis said.

Have a question about your community you’d like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you’d like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you.

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This story was originally published December 4, 2024, 2:52 PM.

Western North Carolina’s Chimney Rock Village, while still recovering from the catastrophic flooding and devastation of Hurricane Helene, will open to the public for a one-day holiday event that not only offers a day of joy and community engagement but also highlights the enduring spirit of the beloved riverside town as it rebuilds and revitalizes.

The Chimney Rock Christmas celebration will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 14, giving visitors the chance to see the progress that’s been made over the last few months. The event is sponsored by CityServe and Spokes of Hope — two of the many organizations that have helped rebuild the village.

“They’ve been up here organizing volunteers, collecting donations, helping rebuild businesses and homes, and now they want to bring a little bit of Christmas spirit to the village,” said longtime Chimney Rock Mayor Peter O’Leary, owner of Bubba O’Leary’s General Store. “We want to show the world that, while we’re nowhere near finished with this multi-year project, we’ve made some great progress and initial repairs. We are on the road to recovery.”

Activities during the holiday celebration include pictures with Santa, Christmas music, free food and free items from newly renovated shops. The stores, O’Leary warns, won’t look like they have in the past. They’re still mostly gutted buildings with bare bone walls and floors as rebuilding continues.

Attendees should park at the Lake Lure beach area and take a shuttle into Chimney Rock Village. The road into the village remains blocked except for local traffic.

“As mayor, I’m so thankful to welcome people back to Chimney Rock,” O’Leary told CharlotteFive. “This event will give us hope and the strength to go forward. Old Chimney Rock is gone but the new Chimney Rock will rise again, and we are so excited about the potential.”

The holiday event also serves as a fundraiser to help with restoration efforts. For those looking to extend their support beyond the event, the nearby Tryon Equestrian Center remains open and includes vendors from Chimney Rock and other parts of Western North Carolina.

This story was originally published December 4, 2024, 1:45 PM.

Follow more of our reporting on Helene in North Carolina

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