"I’m a woodshop instructor at a private school for special needs kids, K-12. We walk our students down the street to have a class in life skills at IHOP. We teach them how to give their name when they first enter, read the menu, place an order, how to act in the store and pay the bill. These are vital skills if they want to succeed on their own as they enter the adult world. All IHOP employees are familiar with the program and they handle our kids with the utmost kindness and respect. Recently taking advantage of a nice spring day, we ventured out to IHOP for our class. When we approached the restaurant, we ran into a flock of geese too lazy to complete their migration to Florida. To our surprise, these birds can be very aggressive and the mess they leave on the lawn is very unpleasant. When we found out that IHOP couldn’t encourage the geese to leave, we put our class to action. For three days, the kids traced, cut and shaped a German Shepherd-looking dog out of wood. The kids affectionately named him Rooty after the IHOP mascot. A few days after "Rooty" was placed at the restaurant, the geese were gone!"

Grand Prize Winner:    Scott Reader, Maple Shade, New Jersey

Runners-Up:    Kevin Bunch, Irvine, CA  |  Deborah Forrest, Ocean Springs, MS
Joshua Snow Hansen, Cedar City, UT  |  Carol Mahoney, Kearns, UT  |   Jill Oviatt, Ann Arbor, MI