Martha Lake Elementary School Students Win Nationwide Video Contest

Martha Lake Elementary School school students won $15,000 in a nationwide video contest sponsored by the nonprofit KaBOOM! That funding, along with a $15,000 matching grant from the Hazel Miller Foundation, will pay for playground improvements.

Fourth graders at Martha Lake created a two-minute video to enter the "Let's Play" contest. After KaBOOM! selected the video as one of 10 finalists, members of the public could vote online for their favorites. The five videos with the most votes all received $15,000 playground equipment grants, which were funded by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. Martha Lake students, teachers, and parents asked as many people they could to vote for the video.

When Martha Lake students found out they'd won the contest, the excitement rang through the school, said Anna Walter, the teacher of the fourth grade class that made the video.

“We left our classroom door open to hear the reactions of the other classes when they heard the good news," Walter said. "It was like popcorn bursts of 'Hoorays!' and 'Whoopies!' up and down the hallways of the whole school. “Martha Lake kids were grinning ear to ear and hugging each other. It was a real community celebration!”

The Martha Lake video and the other KaBOOM! video finalists can be seen at http://projects.kaboom.org/vote_2011.