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The Grand Prize winner of this year's Listen to a Life Essay Contest reports that her teacher had students visit a local senior center to model Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. "That wasn't my experience," says our 13-year-old winner, "mine was better."
Even though she wins a Lenovo ThinkCentre computer and a $500 Books Are Fun gift certificate, she receives the same, bigger reward that every other entrant gets -- the reward of listening to, and learning from, a life. For the contest, a young person 8-18 interviews an older adult 50 years or over about their life experiences -- about their dreams and goals, obstacles they overcame, and how they found hope -- and submits a 300-word essay.
We had thousands of entries pour in from the west coast to the east coast -- and we enjoyed reading every one of them.
The youngest entrant is 8 years old and shares the life story of her "Nani maa," the Hindi word meaning "maternal grandmother." The oldest entrant is 105 years old, interviewed by her 13-year-old great-grandson.
If we had a prize for most original entry, it would have to go to a 9-year-old boy from New York who wrote his entire entry using Blissymbolics. There was an interesting read!
The longest-distance interview was perhaps done by a 16-year-old student who traveled to Thailand. She was there to help students aged 5-15 years learn English, and interviewed the brother of a teacher at the local school. "His dream was to become a professional kick boxer," she writes. "For a young Thai boy living in a village of 400 people, this dream was a dream of the impossible." The man now has a chicken farm, with over 1,000 chickens. He concludes his interview with a plea, "You are a lucky girl. You live in America and have the freedom to travel. Do not take this for granted. Use it to help people like you have helped me share my story to the world. Thank you."
Many entries reminded me of important life lessons, lessons that perhaps get overlooked or forgotten in our hectic day-to-day lives. We had stories of devastating personal losses and challenges. One entrant interviewed a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor who had obviously held on to her spirit to survive and thrive. The 13-year-old starts by happily pointing out that "what I love about Emilie is that she has always insisted I call her by her first name."
Some stories touched on the historically significant, with ties to today's headlines. An 80-year-old grandmother told her 16-year-old grandson about the Kent State shootings. She was there that day, and believes the incident was started by the National Guard mistaking the nail guns of roofers working on the library as gun shots. She contacted the FBI and told them what she thought happened, but received no response.
And, of course, every grandchild believes they have the best grandparent "in the whole world" -- as it should be. In an essay titled "My World Class Grandma," an 11-year-old entrant writes "At first glance, Grandma Ida looks like an average, everyday, run-of-the-mill grandma. Her short, snow-white hair and wrinkled skin look like someone found a grandma-sized crimper and ran her through it. Even though Grandma is beautiful, she seems to have the unquenchable desire to wear prominent pink lip gloss whenever we go out." There goes Grandma the "senior super model," who also, says our entrant, "is my role model."
A 12-year-old entrant reports that "my 90-year-old grandma is not the kind of grandma who reminds me to eat my vegetables. In fact, once she got two large bags of Snickers. She and I had a contest to see who could eat the most Snickers. I ate 62; Grandma ate 94. My grandpa still makes fun of me for losing to an old person."
We enjoy reading the essays, students obviously get a lot out of writing them, and teachers, parents, grandparents, and grandfriends keep telling us how much the experience means to them. Irene Lerner of Illinois reports that she gave her granddaughter an interview for the contest and her grandson interviewed her husband. "Through the process, we all gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of family and legacy. I have shared this experience with family and friends, who are now replicating the activity for themselves. Thank you for creating and sharing this life-affirming program."
Pam Thompson, a fifth grade teacher at Lewis Elementary in Georgia, taught her students interviewing skills and then approached the local Golden Kiwanis to help out. Each student interviewed a senior for about an hour. Students wrote their essays and, on another day, had a special celebration with the seniors during which they read the essays aloud and presented copies of the essays to the seniors. "The event was very moving and the children were really proud of their work. Thank you so much for the contest and all the helpful ideas on your website."
Candice Bidner and Daniel Alston of Long Branch Middle School in New Jersey explain that "when we saw your contest, we thought it would be a great community outreach program. Across the street from our school is a specialized hospice care facility for the elderly. The children were scared at first, but once they met their grandfriends, they really bonded." They go on to say, "our students are middle school pre-teenage to teenage students and many are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Normally, they are the recipients rather than the givers. With this experience, they clearly enjoyed giving their time as well as receiving the life lessons from their grandfriends."
Theresa Johnson, a sixth grade teacher at Neshaminy Middle School in Pennsylvania, says that her students "particularly enjoyed the book Dream that inspired the contest. I read that amazing book to them and we shared our dreams for the future. Aside from the excellent writing opportunity that this contest provided, I was very pleased by the connections that the students made by simply talking to their grandparents with a purpose. They were amazed at the information they learned and grateful for the things they have. I can't thank you enough for providing this excellent educational opportunity for my students."
Monica Yasuda is a Grade 10 English Teacher at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School in Hawaii. She says, "This writing contest was a wonderful opportunity for my students to get to know a little more about their Kupunas (elders). A lot of them shared how much fun they had learning about 'the unknown' from the people closest to them. Mahalo (thank you) for creating this writing contest."
And now I have some "mahalos" of my own! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who entered this year's contest and took the time to share their personal lives with us. Another thank you to our corporate supporters -- Lenovo, Books Are Fun, and Frame USA -- for generously supplying the contest prizes. They are companies that care and make it possible for us to do what we do. And a special thank you to our judging committee, in particular Jim Barry. Every year I know I can count on Jim to help me make sure each entry gets carefully read and considered. He puts all of himself into this judging process -- head and heart -- and we couldn't do this without him.
The Listen to a Life Contest is an annual contest, and the next one starts this September. Be sure to check back on this website for all the details. And, once again, a word of caution: There were a number of really wonderful entries that we had to disqualify because they either exceeded the 300-word limit or they came in late. Please be careful! Make sure you follow the contest rules.
Enjoy reading the winning stories from the 2006-2007 Listen to a Life Contest. The Grand Prize winner is followed by the twenty runners-up. The runners-up are presented in no particular order, other than a good reading flow. After you read the entries, explore the rest of the Legacy Project website. We do what we do for you.
With warm wishes,
Susan V. Bosak
Chair, Legacy Project
Click here to go to the 2006-2007 Listen to a Life Contest Grand Prize winner and the 20 Runners-up
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