Lotus Elementary School in Spring Grove will be able to transform a classroom after winning a $25,000 nationwide sweepstakes.

The Horace Mann “Ready. Set. Inspire. Classroom Makeover Sweepstakes” will provide new furniture and educational materials from Lakeshore Learning “designed to inspire creativity and support student success” for the school, according to a Horace Mann news release.

Kelly Roland, an English Language Learner teacher at Lotus, in Fox Lake Grade School District 114, said she entered the giveaway without thinking twice about the grand prize. Her eyes were set on the smaller prize of a $250 gift card, which she also won last month.

“I always enter them because you never know,” Roland said. “You don’t think when you see the grand prize that you’re going to win the grand prize. You don’t really think much about it.”

Springfield-based financial services company Horace Mann Educators Corporation recently surprised Roland and the school staff with an oversized check. Roland said she was told she was one of 31,000 applicants for the grand prize.

“I don’t even know what I did” when the surprise she learned she won, Roland said. “I think I just froze. It doesn’t feel real.”

Roland has been at Lotus since the start of her teaching career. This is her first year as an ELL teacher for kids in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade and she previously taught third grade for eight years.

“This is my home,” she said.

Roland and a co-teacher who share a classroom will meet with the Horace Mann team and Lakeshore Learning in a few weeks to start planning what they can do to spruce up the classroom.

“My No.-1 thing is getting things in the hands of students,” she said. “I really don’t want $25,000 just in this single room. I want to make sure that money is spread out so that all of our kids are able to benefit from it and really grow with it because that’s an opportunity that doesn’t come everyday.”

Looking through the catalog, Roland is already brainstorming the possibility of replacing a bookshelf and creating a cozy reading space.

“I think we’re now starting to think more about how do we want to completely rebuild this whole space and make it a really great space for kids to learn and a great space for kids to just want to come and be their best selves,” she said.

In addition to the grand prize, Horace Mann awarded 20 schools with $1,500 to be used in creative ways to celebrate and strengthen their school communities, including ice cream trucks for students, appreciation lunches for staff, upgrades to equipment and new classroom materials, according to the release.

“Supporting teachers, their students and their schools is at the heart of what we do,” Lake County Horace Mann agent Alina Knish said in the release. “This classroom makeover will have a lasting impact on teachers and students for years to come.”