She caught my attention when I heard an excited voice say, "Makenzie! I have ribbons on EVERYTHING!" The two girls flew past me in a rush to see probably two dozen items from things she'd canned and grown to things she'd made and, yes, all of them bearing mainly blue or grand champion ribbons. I was at the local community show on assignment for the newspaper, so I decided to take a quick shot of the two friends admiring her grand champion corn - and then talk to her a bit. Allie is a mature second grader who took great pride in showing me the corn, peaches, zinnias, fudge, cake and more that she'd entered in the show. "Did you can those peaches yourself?" I asked her. She was quite solemn in her response. "My Nana showed me how, but .. yes .. I canned those peaches myself." I believed her. (Her mother later confirmed that Allie did can the peaches with very little help.)
She dragged me over to meet her mother, all seriousness gone as she shouted "I'm going to be in the NEWSPAPER!!" Her mother told me I'd made Allie's day - and that made me smile as much as winning a purple GC ribbon myself.