BUCKFIELD – For more than two decades, Cindy Dunn put in long days at the town office. It’s the kind of career that garners a lot of respect but not much wealth.

On Friday, Dunn was riding around in a limousine and celebrating with friends after scratching a lottery ticket worth a quarter-million dollars.

“It’s still sinking in,” Dunn said Friday night.

The former Buckfield town manager won $250,000 Thursday night by scratching a lottery ticket and matching 3’s. A day later, she was surrounded by friends and family at her home as a celebration of the winnings commenced.

What to do with all that loot?

“I’m going to give some to my mother-in-law, some to my father and some to my daughter,” Dunn said. “I’m going to give some to the town.”

Not that she was forgetting the people closest to her.

“I’m going to take my husband on a trip to either Ireland or Hawaii,” Dunn said. ” He can’t decide which one.”

Dunn began working for the town of Buckfield in 1983. She became manager of the town in 1991, a position she resigned from just two months ago.

On Thursday, Dunn went into Tilton’s Market and bought a scratch ticket, as she has frequently in the past.

“She plays a lot,” said store owner Virgil Tilton, who will get 1 percent of the winnings for selling the lucky ticket.

The winning number on Dunn’s ticket was three. When Dunn scratched a portion, the number three came up. That was that. Dunn was a quarter-million dollars richer. The former town worker said it was more about the number of the ticket she bought than the lucky numbers that resulted in the winnings.

“It was ticket number 38,” she said. “That was the year my mother was born. She’s deceased now. But she was my best friend. She was my life. I think she was smiling down on me.”