Eagle Pride honors top students

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Guadalupe Cerros grabbed her daughter around the neck

and shoulders in an impulsive bear hug.

“I’m so proud of my baby,” she said through teeth ground together in

excitement.

She was bursting with pride and joy that her daughter Alejandra, a

student at TeWinkle Middle School, had been awarded the Eagle Pride Award

for the second time -- this time as a Student of the Year.

A luncheon Thursday celebrated the fourth set of awards given out in a

new recognition program created by the Eagle Pride Foundation -- a group

made up of parents in the Estancia High School zone -- and the Costa Mesa

Kiwanis Club.

The program recognizes students who will eventually attend Estancia

High School.

Two fifth-graders from each of the five elementary schools and two

eighth-graders from TeWinkle were nominated by their teachers for the

award in each of the academic quarters. This time the award winners were

chosen from the already elite pool of past winners and dubbed Students of

the Year by Eagle Pride and the Kiwanis.

“I felt sort of amazed that I got it,” said Krya Molter, 11. “I

[received the award] the second time, and I was pretty amazed then.”

The crowd at the awards ceremony grew in relation to its importance,

with an assembly of nearly 100 family, friends and Kiwanis.

“The program has been a major success,” said George Cote, the

president of Eagle Pride who with his wife, Becky, hatched the idea to

honor students. “The whole idea was to bring the Estancia zone together,

and it has worked like a charm.”

The award is intended to inspire the children to continue their

outstanding behavior, academically and personally, and to give them a

positive image of Estancia High, Kiwanis President Joe Panarisi said.

Students are chosen for being well-rounded, exemplary children, not

just for academic accomplishments, Cote said.

Mikey Morley, 10, a quiet, modest fifth-grader from Adams Elementary

School, said he got the award “because I work hard in class.”

“We have a flag deck in the morning, and I do all the music on the

recorder,” he added.

His teacher, Jeannie Pollock, who was eager to share the strengths of

her students, said Mikey was respectful, considerate and caring.

“He is one of our top leaders on campus,” she said. “He was school

secretary, he also acts as an acolyte for his church -- he just stands

out above the others.”