Ceremony Honors Creative Teen-Agers

I’ll make this story as condensed as I can. I’m a proud American, born in Wisconsin. Now I live out west along the coast. They call me Monterey Jack, private eye .

So begins a short story full of puns about cheese that earned its author, Cypress High School senior Mike Hallock, a writing award Tuesday at Disneyland. He was among 44 Orange County junior and senior high school students honored at the theme park in its Creativity Challenge Awards Program.

“I’m glad I won with this story because it’s unique,” Hallock said of his “A Case of Dairy Air, “ a detective story. “It’s terrific to finally get the recognition.”

The creative arts talent search was created in 1987 by the Anaheim Union High School District and Disneyland to “show children we respect their talents,” said district Supt. Cynthia Grennan.

“It seems like fine arts programs hurt the most in budget crunches,” she said. “People go to football games but not always to plays or concerts. We have such a wealth of talent in our young people, and there just had to be a way to give them the recognition.”

The program was limited to Anaheim in its first two years but has since been expanded to include students throughout the county. This year, there were 400 finalists competing in 11 categories, including dance, drama, original music composition, three-dimensional visual arts, black and white photography, and creative writing.

In each category, awards went to a junior high school student and a senior high school student from the Anaheim district, and a junior high school student and a senior high school student selected from the rest of the county. The top award, the medallion of excellence, went to Adam Hutchisson of Estancia High School in Costa Mesa.

The winners received plaques and Disneyland tickets before about 200 family members, teachers and friends in the Mr. Lincoln Theater. The students will also spend up to two work days this summer at Disneyland observing people in various careers.