Juicy News: Watermelon Contest Winners!

“When life gives you watermelons, give a smile!”

Caught you. I just know you’re smiling and thinking of a sweet ripe, juicy slice of watermelon. But here’s a surprise: that slogan was written by an elementary school student. Yes, a child in elementary school!

Fifth-grader Rachel Zeitner of Bath, Pennsylvania, wrote the slogan that made her the grand-prize winner of the slogan-writing portion of the Watermelon, Wondermelon contest. And the artwork at the left? That was created by another fifth grader, Stephanie Brinson of Humble, Texas. She’s the grand-prize winner of the art portion of the contest. Words like unique, intuitive, upbeat were used to describe their entries. Pretty special, right?

“Stephanie’s winning artwork was incredibly unique and intuitively spoke to the incredible benefits of watermelon including hydration and versatility,” Stephanie Barlow of the National Watermelon Promotion Board said. “Rachel’s slogan was upbeat and perfectly captured the idea that watermelon brings about happiness.”

I have to agree. Here’s the best part: each grand-prize winner received $100 for herself, for her teacher, and for her class to hold a watermelon party.

More than 300 fantastic, watermelon-inspired artwork and slogan entries were submitted by students from across the country. (That’s impressive for a first year contest!)

The judges were so wowed by the entries that they decided to award honorable mentions. The art honorable mentions (left) are for Brooke H., grade 4; Kellie V., grade 4;  Audrey W., grade 3, Ana T., grade 1; and Rhett C., grade 4.

The slogan-writing honorable mentions went to Ava L., grade 2, for “ABC Watermelon for me” and Carlos M., grade 4, for “Yesterday I was hungry, today I’ll eat watermelon, tomorrow I’m a winner.” I think I may have to hire these kids as copywriters!

Click here to see all the entries from the contest. Let me know which are your favorites!

So proud of our students,

PS: There are teaching tools at watermelon.org. Just click on “Educators” to see how you can incorporate skill-building, watermelon fun into your lessons.