Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Students honored for activities

Student recognition led off the October meeting of the Prescott School Board.

Rachel Hale was the first to be recognized, as the 2004 Pre-Teen America National Senior Titleholder. The program, she said, is held in 40 states, including Arkansas, where she competed last year. There were 107 girls competing at the state level.

Hale said she wanted to get her message about Christ across and finished second in the state.

This earned her a trip to the national competition, where she won against 133 girls. The national contest was in Baton Rouge, La., on July 1. This was also a five-day competition including a 60 question general knowledge test, different competitions and interviews.

Hale made the top 20, which entitled her to draw a random question to answer. "I was in shock when I learned I won," she said. "I thought I was dreaming."

The program pays for Hale and her mother, Kim, to travel across the nation for different events. So far, they have been to Arizona, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.

Hales was presented a certificate of appreciation from the board for her accomplishments.

Kim Hale followed, talking about the Destination Imagination team and what it did. Prescott's DI team competed in the drama division in cartoon dimension.

The team had to use its creativity and intellect to write a script, design the costumes and set  all according to the criteria given. Basically, she said, the teams are given a description of what the judges want, and must then interpret what's expected and work as a team to accomplish it. Credit is given for teamwork at the competitions.

Prescott's team won state, and brought home the coveted DaVinci Award for costume design. Each member got a medallion and certificate, with the team getting $100 to help with the cost of going to the global competition, which was held in Louisville, Ken.

Prescott placed 15th in the global contest, competing from teams from across the world. The members presented the Board T-shirts from the United Kingdom, Guatemala and Korea for the school's trophy case.

This group was also presented with certificates of appreciation.

Jody Cowart was next talking about the golf team's accomplishments. The Wolf link squad, he said, doesn't get a lot of publicity or recognition, but the team members put in a lot of time practicing.

The girl's team, he said, qualified for the regional tourney for the first time in school history. Misty Avery qualified for the state tournament and finished in the top 20.

The boy's team was third in district, runner up in regional and second in state. Drew Richards finished second in the state tilt and qualified for the overall tourney the second year in a row. Overall was played at the Pleasant Valley course in Little Rock with the top 12 prep golfers in the state.

Both teams were presented certificates of appreciation by the Board.