By Jennifer Evans (Updated: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 5:43 PM PDT)
Hannah Ramirez from Center Street School won first place in the film/video category.
Several El Segundo students were picked for “wowing” members of the regional PTA board in a competition where they were asked to express the word “wow” through video, music, photography, literature and artwork.
Five district students were honored for their submissions to the Parent Teacher Association's 33rd District's “Reflections” competition at the El Segundo Unified School District's April 28 board meeting.
The 33rd District encompasses an area from San Pedro to Malibu, so it was no surprise that parents, teachers and board members seemed especially impressed when El Segundo PTA Council President Jenny Davies announced that from the hundreds of entries, five of the winners were from El Segundo.
Winning third place in the music category was Aidan Stenson from Center Street, winning third place in photography was Madison Dunaetz from El Segundo Middle School, and a film/video honorable mention went to Diego Kaiser from Center Street and to Shannon Brooker from the Middle School.
However, it was the youngest and smallest student in the audience, Hannah Ramirez of Center Street, who was deemed the top winner of the night taking first prize in the film/video category with her homemade DVD reflecting the theme of friendship and what it means to her regardless of race or color.
During the meeting, Davies played the winning DVD creation for the audience.
The video, titled “Friends are Wow, Wonderful, Nice, Happy,” shows a group of girls playing together and discussing what friendship really means to them. In the DVD, each girl talks about what makes their friends so special to them.
“When I see my friends, I don't see skin color,” Ramirez said in the video. The other three girls - Brooke Graham, Katherine Leutgens and Savannah Schartz - who are also students at Center Street, followed with comments such as; “When I see my friend, I see pretty hair,” “When I see my friend, I don't see fat and skinny,” “When I see my friend, I see beautiful eyes.”
Following the awards, Davies announced that next year's 2009-10 PTA “Reflections” theme will be “Beauty isŠ” Davies explained that students are invited to enter the competition in the categories of literature, musical composition, visual arts, photography, film/video production and dance choreography.
Davies urged parents to get involved with the Reflections project.
“We need all the help we can get organizing this event,” Davies said. “We also need parents who are willing to serve as chairperson at each of our school sites. In order to keep this program thriving, we really are asking parents to help us out.”
Question: Spend an afternoon walking along the commercial streets of Hermosa Beach and you're bound see a lot of “for rent” signs, dark buildings, covered windows and empty lots. That's because the city has more than 50 vacancies where clothing shops, art galleries, restaurants, spas and pet stores used to flourish. As everyone knows, Hermosa Beach is not the only city feeling the effects of the faltering economy. * What steps can local municipalities do to help the business districts close to home weather this financial storm?
from Archives: El Segundo News 
