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The Star Herald

May 9, 2002

Most of us are still struggling to think of what to get Mom this Mother’s Day.

But as May 12 looms on the calendar, one Belton student has his work for the holiday already taken care of.

Mathew Scott, A Junior at Heartland Academy, entered a national poetry contest sponsored annually by “Gallery of Diamonds,” a California jewelry company.  The contest, called Why Mom Deserves a Diamond® accepts poems not more than 29 words that students across America can write about their mother.

Scott’s poem was chosen  best out of 14,375 entries, marking the first time a student from Missouri has ever won the 10-year-old contest.

“I would have never thought I could have won,” Matthew Scott said.  “I was quite happy, and exited.”

He received a quarter-carat diamond valued at $425 to present to his mother, Kathy.

“We were just kind of flabbergasted,” Matthew’s father, Norman, said.  “We didn’t exactly visualize him as the poetic type.  He’s 6-3, 230, and he throws the shot put, but he’s got this side for language.”

But, Norman Scott said, a love for English had to come from somewhere.

“He reads a lot,” Norman Scott said.  “He’s a prolific reader, I can’t count how many books I’ve seen him read.”