BELL GARDENS : ‘A’ Students to Get Limo Ride, Dinner

The Bell Gardens Police Department will sponsor a dinner for four straight-A students from Bell Gardens Intermediate School at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Gotham Grill, 5811 Firestone Blvd. in South Gate.

The students, fifth-grader Jennifer Lopez, 10, sixth-grader Vanesa Torres, 11, and eighth-grader Heidi Chang, 13, all of Bell Gardens, and seventh-grader Yessica Jovel, 12, of Los Angeles were chosen for the honor. Each had a 4.0 grade-point average.

Officials held an essay contest to choose the winners because five students in each grade qualified for the award, said Bell Gardens DARE Officer Michael So. The school includes fifth- through eighth-graders.

Students were asked to choose from three questions--what they would do to improve their school, whom they trusted the most and why, or what they would tell their children.

So, who coordinates the DARE program at Bell Gardens Intermediate, created the recognition dinner “to provide an incentive for kids to achieve their potential in school.”

The honorees, scheduled to arrive at the dinner in a limousine with their parents, will be asked to give speeches during the festivities for police, parents and Bell Gardens city officials.