Children say mothers are forever

Elia Powers

Mother’s Day is still more than two months away, but two Orange

County students expressed their gratitude to their moms at a Costa

Mesa jewelry store Saturday afternoon.

Grand prize winners Analyse Groton of Linda Vista Elementary

School in Orange and Jason Punzalan of Servite High School in Anaheim

recited their winning short essays in Gallery of Diamonds’ 13th

annual “Why Mom Deserves a Diamond” contest.

Store president Michael Watson presented each student with a

quarter-carat diamond, valued at $500, which were then given to the

mothers.

The students were chosen from a pool of 22,629 entrants from

across the country, Watson said. A sixth-grade student from Colorado

Springs, Colo., was selected as the national winner, but did not

attend the ceremony.

“My mother’s eyes are like two fireflies glistening in the moonlit

sky. Her kiss is like a big blue wish. Mother is nature’s way of

saying “Hooray!” wrote Analyse, a fourth-grade student, in her essay.

“She’s a nature-oriented person,” said Patricia Groton, Analyse’s

mother. “She is a very loving and giving child.”

Analyse, the first- through fifth-grade winner, wrote the piece as

a school assignment, as did Jason, winner in the sixth- through

12th-grade category.

“You’re spring’s showering rain of care. You’re summer’s shining

smile. You’re autumn’s sweater of warm comfort. You’re winter’s

beauty. You’re my mother, the seasons of love,” Punzalan wrote in the

essay.

Over the next four months, 4,000 second- and third-prize winners

will come to the Costa Mesa gallery, recite their essays and receive

gems from Africa.

In the past 15 years, more than 150,000 students have written

poems for the contest, Watson said.

“Some are funny; some are sad; some are from children who never

knew their real mother,” he said.

Watson was searching for his birthmother in 1993, when he had the

idea for the contest. He wanted to honor both of his mothers, even

though he never met his birth mother, who died before he found her.

Watson said he credits much of his fortune to his adoptive mother,

Martha Watson, who lives in New Albany, Ind.

“I was very much loved,” he said. “Everyone involved in this

contest feels that way.

“Mother’s Day is just a day on the calendar. We should celebrate

our moms every day.”

Twelve years ago, he began by calling a handful of local schools

and arranged for students to write in-class essays about their

mothers. No more than 250 students participated in the first year, he

said.

Watson recently wrote and published a 200-page autobiography,

titled “Adopted Like Me -- Chosen to Search for Truth, Identity, and

a Birthmother.” It tells the story of his 20-year quest to find his

birth mother.

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

[email protected].