Make room “Jones 30,” there’s a new Powerball-winning group in Boone County.
Seventeen employees at Toyota’s North American Parts Center in Hebron are celebrating a $50,000 win from their office pool’s Powerball ticket purchased for the Aug. 19, 2026, drawing.
The win comes two and a half years after the “Jones 30,” a group from Rector A. Jones Middle School, claimed a $1 million prize.
Angela Lyles, one of the Toyota group’s winners, said she is very familiar with the group of winning teachers. “I’m having someone at my house tonight whose mom I believe was part of the Jones 30.”
Lyles and colleague Colleen Menkhaus recently traveled to the Kentucky Lottery headquarters to claim the group’s checks.
The Hebron facility, a central hub for Toyota’s aftersales supply chain, procures and channels over 117,000 unique service parts and accessories from local suppliers and assembly plants.
The office pool, active for several years, has each member take a turn at buying their tickets weekly. Lyles purchased the winning ticket for the Aug. 19 drawing, matching four white balls and the Powerball. (The Jones 30 matched five white balls winning $1 million.)
“We were going to a meeting, and we took all our stuff downstairs to the meeting as we were leaving right after,” Lyles said. “I got a text from one of my girlfriends. And she said somebody won $50,000 in Oakbrook. I was like that is where I bought our tickets last night.”
Lyles said she got her tickets out to check them with Menkhaus, and she realized right away the group had won big.
“We’re looking at them and she is reading the numbers to me,” Lyles said. “I’ve been in a group before where we’ve won $50,000 so I knew that we had the Powerball and four numbers, so I told her we had won $50,000.” (Lyles won a $50,000 Powerball prize in 2017 with a group of friends when they were camping in Indiana.)
Menkhaus said she didn’t believe it. “I’m a rookie. I didn’t know,” she joked.
Members of the winning office pool found out about their winning in their Powerball text chat that blew up with messages of disbelief.
After their meeting, Lyles and Menkhaus stopped by Village Market in Florence, where the winning ticket was purchased. “When I handed the store clerk the ticket, she said, ‘Hold on one minute,’” Menkhaus said. “She scanned it and told us we’d need to take it to the Kentucky Lottery.”
Each member received over $2,000 after taxes. Village Market received $500 for selling the winning ticket.
Members of the group plan to use their winnings to travel and make some home repairs.
The Toyota team joins a growing list of Kentucky office pool winners:
The “Jones 30” from Rector A. Jones Middle School won $1 million in January 2024.
Seventeen employees from Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown won $50,000 in March 2025.
Workers from TG Kentucky in Lebanon secured $50,000 in December 2025.
Avantor Performance Materials employees in Paris won $50,000 in January 2026.
In 2026, the Kentucky Lottery paid out more than $1.8 billion in prizes. Kentucky Lottery proceeds have funded scholarships and grants for over 1.1 million Kentucky college students.