The new big cheese on campus

Deirdre Newman

In his wildest dreams, 11-year-old Aaron Ludlow never expected it

would come to this.

Free pizza for his entire school. Chuck E. Cheese prancing around

on stage in the multipurpose room surrounded by dancing girls. And a

potential invitation to appear on “The Tonight Show.”

All because he took a stand and followed the correct channels in

expressing his beef -- well, more like his pepperoni -- to the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

“Aaron shows that if you have an idea and pursue it, even kids get

listened to, if you pursue it the right way,” said Candy Cloud, the

principal at Aaron’s school, Adams Elementary in Costa Mesa.

Aaron, a fifth-grader, couldn’t believe it when his school stopped

offering pizza for lunch every Thursday and switched to every other

Thursday.

“I was enraged,” Aaron said. “They canceled it and didn’t let

anyone know.”

He expressed his chagrin to his mom and suggested distributing a

petition to bring the weekly pizza back. His mom, Chris, suggested he

survey his peers instead to get a better handle on the popularity of

pizza at the school.

“I’m an engineer, so I know that having numbers to back up your

opinion is important,” Chris said.

The results showed the students overwhelmingly favored pizza.

“It turns out that out of 389 students who participated, 371

wanted the pizza back every Thursday,” Aaron said. “That’s 95%.”

So Aaron submitted the results with a letter to Richard Greene,

the district’s director of food services. On Dec. 4, Greene declared

that the pizza would return every Thursday.

But that wasn’t the end of the pizza saga.

When Mark Reed, general manager of the Chuck E. Cheese in

Torrance, caught wind of Aaron’s crusade, he was inspired.

“Aaron did something I wish I had done when I was 11,” Reed said.

So Reed made some calls and ultimately arranged for a live Chuck

E. Cheese show to come to Adams Elementary to entertain the students.

On Friday, the company donated 100 large cheese pizzas and put on

three shows.

While Adams students merrily chowed down on pizza, Aaron shied

away from taking the credit.

‘I think [the party] is OK, but I don’t think I really deserve it,

because all I did was get pizza back,” Aaron said.

Aaron said he is a little uncomfortable with the deluge of

attention he is receiving.

“I’ve only had [the attention] for a few days and I’m hating it

already because I’m sort of a private person,” Aaron said.

But he said he is excited about his school receiving publicity.

This week, staff from “The Tonight Show” talked to Chris about the

possibility of Jay Leno interviewing Aaron.

“It puts our school on the radar screen,” Aaron said. “Most of the

time, our school is ignored, so it’s about time we get some

publicity.”

At the end of the party on Friday, Chuck E. Cheese presented Aaron

with a basketball, a balloon bouquet, a stuffed animal and a

certificate “In Appreciation of Dedication and Devotion to Pizza.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.