3rd-Graders Eat Up Praise And Pizza

Encouragement and praise brought a smile to Park Elementary School's third-graders recently, courtesy of South Florida Community College's Student Government Association.

The SFCC students complimented the elementary students for their drawings about living drug free. Every student in the school's three third-grade classes participated in the Red Ribbon Week drawing contest.

When the college students arrived to his classroom, one boy thought this would be a good opportunity to get some assistance.

"Can you help with this test?" the boy asked.

An SFCC student replied he couldn't help because that would be cheating.

Though they weren't there to help with the school work, the SFCC students were prepared to congratulate the younger students for their efforts.

"We were very happy to see how many artistic third-graders there are at Park Elementary," said Jacqui Avis.

The drawing contest winners were: first-place Emily Doyle, second-place Dallas Lynch and third-place Alex Alexander.

The winners received a tote bag or T-shirt, but all the students were happy to receive a drug-free glow-in-the-dark dog tag.

After the students moved to the outside dining area, they were treated to pizza and sodas with a special guest server - the SFCC mascot Pete the Panther.

SFCC student David Michner told the students their drawings will be posted on a wall in the main part of the college campus where the students hang out.

"It's actually going to show what you guys did for the whole college to see," he said. "That's how much we respect and appreciate what you did for us."

As the students enjoyed the pizza and Pete's company, Michner said "we wanted to do something in the community. We have things to do with the drug-free programs with the college, but we wanted to do more outreach programs with these students.

"The third-graders put a lot of effort into it," he added.