PEARCY -- Logan Hanna, a fourth-grader at Lake Hamilton Intermediate school, said he feels excited to be selected as the winner of the Bonnie Cabbage Plant program with his cabbage, which weighed in at over 7 pounds.
Melissa Anthony, gifted and talented enrichment teacher for grades first through third, said Bonnie Cabbage Plant is a national program. School district winners are submitted to state contests. The program selects one winner from each state from all of the entries and awards.
There was not a winner in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so this year, winners from the past two years were entered into the 2021 contest.
"So initially, I enrolled our schools to receive cabbages for all of our third-graders and every year we choose a school winner, and those school winners are submitted to the Bonnie Cabbage Plant program contest, and Bonnie Cabbage Plant chooses one from each state to win the scholarships. So, our school winner is one entry into that state contest," she said.
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"In 1996, Bonnie Plants initiated the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program in and around headquarters in Union Springs, Alabama, with a mission to inspire a love of vegetable gardening in young people, teach kids where their food comes from, and grow our next generation of gardeners," the program's website said.
Hanna was in the third grade when he competed in the program last year, but found out he won this year.
Hanna started his plant from a seed; the roots started to grow in the first week. He said he watered the cabbage every other day, and the cabbage took 10 weeks to grow.
Some students in the competition had their cabbages damaged by wild animals, but Hanna's plant was protected by a fence and netting over it at his family's farm.
"He removed any weeds that grew around it and removed any cabbage worms found," Anthony said to The Sentinel-Record. "He would take care of it after school and before heading out for sports."
Hanna said he chose to compete in the program because he had a chance to win a $1,000 college scholarship.
Hanna said he enjoys sports and being outside growing plants and vegetables and feels he will be growing more things in the future. His family has lived in Garland County for 16 years and he has two older brothers and a sister.
"It is very exciting to see the kids achieve success in anything, but I really like it whenever it's a project that involves their family; we really try to extend the learning into the homes and letting the family become involved. So that's really exciting to me to see that all come together and to stay successful from that," Anthony said.
"I'm proud of all of the boys and girls that participated, and I hope that we have a lot of participation in the future."