• Student Name: Lilly Rogers
  • School Name: Valley View Elementary
  • Grade: 2nd
  • City, State: Jonesboro
  • Teacher's Name: Mandy Zipfel
  • Essay:
    My Mom's name is Jeri. She is my hero for many reasons. One of the reasons is she's never smoked. She says smoking is bad for your body and it's bad for your heart. I think smoking is bad because you can't do anything. It is like you don't have any energy. The second reason is she exercises. She runs one mile or two miles a day. If you exercise, you get more energy and you can do more things. The third reason is she makes good friends that don't smoke. Mom says, "Choose the right friends." If you choose the right friends who do not do drugs, you can live a healthy life. She tries to keep me healthy. She makes me eat healthy foods before I can eat candy. She thinks apples are healthy and grapes. She thinks tomatoes are healthy but I don't like tomatoes. She makes sure that I'm not hungry before I leave for school. Mom has taken care of me my whole entire life and it means a lot to me. When I get sick, she always takes care of me, until I am better. Mom says to never take medicine from the cabinet or it will make you sick. I listen to my Mom so I never get sick or hurt or worse. I can always trust my Mom. She always gets me ready for whatever I'm doing and she gets me there on time. When I feel bad she always make sure I'm O.K. One time I woke up at 4:00 in the morning and my tummy was hurting. So she gave me some medicine and I went back to bed. In a couple of minutes, I felt better. My Mom also says to never ever, never ever do drugs. I think I should never do drugs so I can do what I'm talented at and never stop. In counseling I watched KiKi's story about the man who shut down people who sell drugs. He was a very good person like my Mom. I want to be a good person when I grow up. And that is very important to me. I want to be like my Mom. 

Guidelines

Open to students in grades 2-9, with judging falling into three categories:Grades 2 & 3, 4-6 and 7-9.

The essay must be written by the student and should focus on the healthy hero’s lifestyle choices and attitudes about being tobacco-free. The essay should be at least 300 words but no more than 750 words.

Entries must be submitted before 5 p.m. on Friday, October 30.

Winners will be announced by 5 p.m. on Monday, December 7.

Prizes

Grades 2-3:
  • First place: Nintendo Wii
  • Second place: portable dvd player
  • Third place: Nintendo DS
Grades 4-6:
  • First place: laptop computer
  • Second place: 160 GB iPod Classic
  • Third place: 4 GB iPod shuffle
Grades 7-9:
  • First place: laptop computer
  • Second place: 8 GB iPod touch
  • Third place: 8 GB iPod nano