Eddie Basha
Eddie Basha is a man whose advocacy for children and education is legendary. For many years he has donated his leadership, time and financial support to projects for education, the homeless and hungry, health care and the arts. As a proponent of quality education, he has served on the Arizona Board of Regents, the State Board of Education and the Chandler School Board, and his family-owned supermarket chain continues to raise funds for countless charities.

Anshantia Oso
Anshantia Oso, a senior Communications major, levies her time between various social and community service projects. She is the president of the Arizona Youth and College Division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), serves as a mentor within the Minority Achievers Program, and is the creator of Diaspora Magazine.

24 Arizona schoolchildren win statewide MLK poster-essay contest at ASU
Twenty-four schoolchildren from around the state have won awards in ASU’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. poster-essay contest. They will receive savings bonds and prize ribbons from President Michael Crow at a celebration breakfast January 27 on the Tempe campus. Eddie Basha also will be awarded the university’s 2005 Servant Leadership Award.

All the winning posters will be displayed at the event, and four children will read their first-place essays to the group. Also invited to the awards ceremony are their parents and teachers. More than 1,500 children entered the contest, each describing someone they know who leads through service to others.

The posters are on display through January in the Tempe campus Memorial Union, East campus Union, West campus Fletcher Library, ASU Downtown campus and the state capitol. They also have been printed as bookmarks.

The contest categories are primary, grades K-2; intermediate, grades 3-5; middle, grades 6-8; and secondary, grades 9-12. Following is a list of winners.

Scottsdale – Scottsdale students swept two essay categories. In the middle school essay category, Philip Janasz, Mountainside Middle School eighth grader, won first place; Annie McGeorge, Ingleside Middle School seventh grader, won second place; and Hannah McDonald, Mountainside Middle School eighth grader, won third place. In secondary essays, Kate Naranjo, Chaparral High School 10th grader, won first place; Carly Fusco, Chaparral 10th grader, won second place; and Pam Weir, also a Chaparral 10th grader, won third place. Samantha McMahon, a senior at Desert Mountain High School, won second place for her poster in the secondary category.

Tempe – Theresa Lobato, a second grader at Broadmor Elementary, won first place in the primary category for her essay.

Mesa – In the primary category, Willie Karr, Franklin Northeast second grader, won third place for his essay; and Olivia Wilson, Franklin Northeast second grader, won second place for her essay. Reilly Anderson, Franklin East fourth grader, won third place essay in the intermediate category. Maria Mercado, Kino Jr. High seventh grader, won third place poster in the middle category.

Washington District – Hazel Erece, a fifth grader at John Jacobs Elementary, won first prize for the second year in a row, in the intermediate poster category. Lorin Lewis, also a John Jacobs fifth grader, won second place. Two other students from John Jacobs took the following prizes: In the primary poster category, second grader Regan Jepson won second place and kindergartener Deja Artis won third place. Zach Hill, Acacia School third grader, won third place poster.

Tolleson – Two students from Westview High School won prizes in secondary poster. Vanessa Madrid, ninth grade, won first place, and Ashlee Volrich, tenth grade, won third place.

Glendale ­­– Carlos Castro, an eighth grader at Glendale Landmark Middle School, won first place poster in the middle school category.

Roosevelt Elementary – Kimberly Hernandez, a fourth grader at Valley View Elementary, won second place essay in the intermediate category.

Phoenix charter – Tess Suchoff, an eighth grader at Veritas Preparatory Academy, won second place poster in the middle school category.

Tucson – Nic McCaleb, a fourth grader at Manzanita Elementary in the Catalina Foothills District, won first place for his essay in the intermediate category.

Payson - Tzeidl Harper, a second grader at the Shelby School, won first place poster in the primary category.

Read the winning Essays:
Primary Grade Winners-MS-Word or Adobe PDF
Intermediate Grade Winners-MS-Word or Adobe PDF
Middle School Winners-MS-Word or Adobe PDF
Secondary Grade Winners-MS-Word or Adobe PDF