Two White Lake Students in Running for $30,000 Award

Riley Davis, 7, and Tyler Zaloga, 7, have been buddies since kindergarten at Oxbow Community School in White Lake. They have entered a nationwide contest with Uncle Ben’s Rice.

It’s called Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest, a program to encourage children to make healthier choices by getting them interested in cooking at an early age and to empower family connections “One Meal at a Time” aiming to make cooking an enjoyable activity that brings families together.

Students across the country were asked to submit videos of themselves and family members making their favorite dishes with Uncle Ben’s rice. The winners will receive $15,000 plus a $30,000 award for their school.

Certainly both boys are excited for the family prize (some of which would be used for college fund savings). However, both 2nd graders were motivated because they wanted to help their school more than anything else. They are excited because their school could win monies that it desperately needs.

While Oxbow provides an excellent education for its students with teachers and staff that go above and beyond, this award would provide opportunities to Oxbow that they don’t have right now. With more than half of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch and less funding than many schools, the school community works hard at “out-of-the-box” (rice box pun intended) thinking and has made huge strides in this area for fundraising in order to provide every student with tools for success. Oxbow could do great things to benefit every student in the classroom, in addition to healthy eating and family involvement programs.

Both of these 2nd graders entered without sharing their specific cooking plans, ironically they each chose camping recipes - a true sign of a Michigander!

Riley and Tyler are as hopeful for each other as they are for themselves - their priority is helping every student at Oxbow and making this a “Win-Win” (one of 5 Character & Leadership habits Oxbow encourages every day).

Hundreds of videos, including Tyler and Riley’s are in the semi-finals – this is the last round of which 25 finalists will be announced. Of those 25 finalists, five winners will be chosen based on the number of votes they receive, presentation, knowledge of ingredients, and creativity.

Voting is allowed every 24 hours through October 29th (the cut off is noon on the 29th) and you may vote for both videos each time (you are not limited to choose only one).

To help Tyler and Riley you can vote by clicking their links:

Tyler’s Video: http://bit.ly/1vgSPVu
Riley’s Video: http://bit.ly/1wPqWRq

You can also go to BensBeginnersContest.com and search for their entries:

Tyler’s video – search: “Camping With”
and
Riley’s video – search: “Fire Roasted”

So set your timers for every 24 hours to help these local students out with a simple 1-click vote that will mean the world to these thoughtful boys in our community.