Project Description

CBS2

2015

An Orange County jeweler is looking for moms who shine brightly in their children’s eyes.

Yeah, for more than 20 years, he’s been asking kids why their mom deserves a diamond.

CBS 2 Orange County reporter Michelle Gile shows us what’s behind the glittering giveaway.

“My mom deserves a diamond because she’s my diamond. She’s the light of my life, and without her I would be nothing.”

His love of the written word and his decades-long quest to find his birth mother was the inspiration for a Newport Beach jeweler to begin a contest.

It’s now in its 23rd year. The title gives away the prize: “Why Mom Deserves a Diamond.”

Winning the diamond, that’s just like the carrot on the stick. But once these kids start and they have their pen and paper and their thinking, I mean it’s less about the prize, the diamond, but it’s more about their mom.

There are 10 days left to submit a contest form.  Orange County schoolchildren up to seniors in high school can enter with the help of a teacher.

Heartfelt notes are arriving at Diamond Mike Watson’s Gallery of Diamonds. The first year, 200 kids entered. Last year, more than 20,000 did.

This is one of the diamonds that a lucky mom will take home, a diamond that weighs a quarter carat.

Diamond Mike Watson wants all of the kids who’ve entered his contest to know that yes, there are two grand prize winners.  Two mothers will walk away with diamonds, but there are also thousands of other winners.  Mothers who will receive these garnets and amethysts weighing one-carat each.

James Cox, Fountain Valley, Anaheim.

30 local teachers now read the essays. The winners will be announced in the spring.

In Newport Beach, Michelle Gile, CBS 2 News.

And by the way, the deadline for this year’s essay contest is January 15th.

For more information on how to enter, just check out CBSLA.com and click scene on TV.