On March 22, Elizabeth Reidel of the SIFMA Foundation made a visit to Rhodes Elementary School for what she estimates was at least the 10th year in a row.

It’s her job to act as SIFMA’s “Prize Patrol,” announcing the winners of the fall and spring InvestWrite essay contests. The fall contest results were in, and as has become tradition at Rhodes, the winner hailed from fifth-grade teacher Jim Gemma’s class.

“This is my favorite part of my job,” Reidel said as she stood before the school community.

Reidel said the InvestWrite contest is an extension of the popular Stock Market Game in which the students receive a virtual $100,000 to invest over a period of time. Through the game, the students learn about how to make important financial decisions, investing and saving their money in the most profitable way possible.

“If you invest your birthday or allowance money, it can grow even more,” she said.

Reidel described how the essay contest allows students who have played the game to show what they’ve learned by answering an essay prompt. She described the rigor that is involved in the judging process.

“At the classroom level, 187,094 essays were submitted since 2004. Next year we hope to hit 200,000 and we’ll have an even bigger celebration. Classroom teachers pick the 10 best essays per classroom, and this fall 889 made it to the final round of judging from across the United States,” she said. “Our staff in New York City works with industry professionals from places like Bank of America and Wells Fargo and they serve as the judges of our competition, determining the winners. This time we had 2,000 judges.”

As Reidel began to describe this year’s winner and take bits and pieces of his essay, which was written about investing in Hasbro, the students in Gemma’s class began to show their excitement, several of them holding hands and glancing over in the direction of their classmate, Timothy Dietrich. When Timothy’s name was called out as the winner, his classmates cheered, celebrating in his success.

Gemma said that it was difficult to keep the winning news from them this time around.

“They kept asking if I’d heard anything  yet,” he said. “I kept saying, ‘No, nothing yet, not yet.’”

Dietrich’s family arrived from behind the stage curtains and from the hallway corridor, and suddenly he was surrounded by his friends and family amid the celebration.

When asked at what point he realized that Reidel was describing him, he said it was when he heard Hasbro was part of the winning essay that he realized he was the winner.

Reidel gave Deitrich his prizes, the school’s trophy, and a new addition to the prize patrol – a winner’s banner which can be hung in the school. She gave Gemma a gift card and certificate as well in recognition of his support and dedication.

For information about the spring essay competition and prompt, which has an April deadline, visit investwrite.org.