My dad is just like my grandpa,
but my grandpa is better.- Zach, 5th grader
Photo credit: ArizTravel.com - All Rights Reserved
“What makes your grandparents so special?” This was the question Verde Canyon Railroad posed to thousands of grade school students across the state of Arizona, in the annual “Grandparents Day Essay Contest.”
An abundance of entries poured into the Railroad’s Clarkdale depot, full of all the qualities that children find most appealing and important in a grandparent. Winners were chosen from each region, and each successful author will be awarded complimentary first-class train rides for them and their grandparents aboard the famed wilderness excursion train on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 celebrating Grandparents Day.
“We really enjoy reading the essays– they’re always so bright, funny and charming that it makes it very difficult to choose winners,” said Teresa Propeck, Verde Canyon Railroad’s Marketing Director.
“My dad is just like my grandpa, but my grandpa is better,” said Zach Abrigo in his prize winning essay. Abrigo is a 5th grade student at Cottonwood Middle School in the Verde Valley. Adriana Revilla, a 4th grader from Desert Heights School in Peoria, let us know about her “lovable” grandparents, “They are so understanding because when I accidentally gave my grandpa a black eye they did not get mad.” “What makes my grandparents special is that they love me no matter what,” said McKenna Olsen, a 5th grader from Challenge Charter School in Glendale. “Sure, they’re sometimes embarrassing and weird, but that’s only because they’re just trying to play around with me.”
Students from Del Rio Middle School in Chino Valley submitted an entire binder full of entries about their retiring lunchroom/playground volunteer, Celia Chapman, known as “Grandma” to the entire student body. The students love their “Del Rio Grandma” for helping them open their snacks and lunches, keeping them safe from harm on the playground, and for her famed Hubba Hubba dance every Friday. “She also knows most of our names at school, which is about 700 children,” said 3rd grader, Coltin Farnsworth. Naturally, with credentials like this, the Verde Canyon Railroad will award a train ride to “Grandma” Celia Chapman.
Students love their ‘Del Rio Grandma’ for her famed Hubba Hubba dance [she performs] every Friday.
Other winners include Makaela Hayman, 4th grader at Clarkdale-Jerome School; Keigan Willingham, 3rd grader at Del Rio Middle School in Chino Valley; Miranda Masters, 2nd grader at Canon Elementary in Black Canyon City; Adrian Lara and Charity DeTemple, both 4th graders at Prescott Valley’s Acorn Montessori; Nialetti Daley, 5th grader at Phoenix’s Joseph Zito Elementary; Collin Wood and Rook Wood, 2nd graders at Bustoz Elementary in Tempe; and Justin Paprocki and Jacob Garza, 5th graders from Challenge Charter School in Glendale.
Grandparents Day is Sunday, September 13th. On this date, the Verde Canyon Railroad departs at 1:00 pm and returns at 5:00 pm, a perfect, leisurely excursion through the wilderness for grandparents, parents, and children of all ages.
The Verde Canyon Railroad depot is located at 300 N. Broadway in Clarkdale, 25 minutes from Sedona, 2 hours north of Phoenix and 90 minutes south of Flagstaff. Go to verdecanyonrailroad.com for more information.
