The three winners from more than 1,430 entries captured $100 each for two humorous odes to mom and a lyrical Hawaiian tribute.
Russell Tahauri, 9, is a Laie Elementary School fourth-grader, the youngest of seven children and the only son of Marvelee Tahauri of Hauula. Russell likely will bank his winnings. "He was kind of singing it to me and making musubi at the same time," said mom, Marvelee Tahauri, a 7th-grade English teacher at Kahuku High and Intermediate School. "So we wrote it down," she said of the musubi ditty that rhymes and features a musical cadence.
When she found out Russell had won, "It made my day. I started jumping up and down in my class because I was teaching poetry. I said, 'See you can win money by writing poetry; so do your best, kids.' It's such a thrill to have this little boy and for him to win. He's such a rascal."
Sixteen-year-old Kalani Werner plans to take his mom, Barbara Werner, and sister-in-law, Hana Werner, out to Mother's Day dinner with his winnings. Kalani is the fourth of 10 children, including three brothers and six foster siblings; eight youngsters are at home, so dinner is a major undertaking, as memorialized in Kalani's monologue to mom. Maybe dinner out will be on time! "Oh, my goodness, we never thought he'd win," Barbara Werner said. "He was telling me about it. He did it himself. I just laughed and laughed. I said, 'Nah, Kalani, you ain't gonna win.' It's a surprise.
"He's kind of kolohe," Barbara Werner said. "He's mischievous, but he's a real good boy."
Aaron Foster took Hawaiian language for a year at Leilehua Community School for Adults and used his classes as a basis for composing his winner.
"I have a (Hawaiian) dictionary and I just looked it up," he said. "It took quite a while."
Foster, 22, also plans to take his mom, Raynel Foster, out to dinner, at Waimea Falls Park. A Kahuku High graduate, he helps operate the family's 3-1/2-acre Smokie Acre Blossoms plumeria farm on the North Shore when he's not "Winning with words" for his mom.