5 Area Students Win in LA’s BEST Contest

Raelynn Bautista takes the philosophical approach.

Her grandmother’s cooking isn’t always great, the Napa Street Elementary School fifth-grader says, but that’s OK, “because she loves us.”

And, she notes in an essay, “She let my mom see my father when they were young, my mom and dad got married and they had me.”

And even if dinner doesn’t turn out to be perfect, her grandmother, Paz Formoso, can be excused, Raelynn says, because “She has taught me that I can be anything that I want to be, even if I am a nerd.”

Raelynn turned those sentiments into poetry and stitched them into a pillow, which she entered with her essay in a contest sponsored by the LA’s BEST after-school enrichment program.

Hers was one of 22 winning entries selected from hundreds submitted to the competition, which asked children to describe--either through art or in essays--why their grandmothers were important to them, said Tammy Sims, communications director for LA’s BEST.

All the winners will have brunch Sunday with Mayor Richard Riordan at Getty House, the mayor’s official residence.

Other Valley winners are Veronica Gutierrez, a Canoga Park Elementary School fifth-grader; Breanna Taylor, a second-grader at Hart Street Elementary School in Canoga Park; Diana Lozano, a second-grader from Langdon Avenue Elementary School in North Hills; and Kevin Bonilla, a Sylmar Elementary School fourth-grader.

LA’s BEST was created in 1988 through a partnership with the mayor’s office, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the Los Angeles Unified School District and private sector sponsors.

The free after-school activities program serves 4,500 elementary school students at 22 schools in neighborhoods identified as vulnerable to gangs, drugs and crime.

It offers homework assistance, computer instruction, sports, dance, science clubs, performing arts and field trips.