After winning a math contest in March, sixth-grader Taryn Quaytman felt a little guilty.
She had practiced and learned from her friend Casey Kolb while preparing for the big countywide “24 Challenge” ? a fast-paced tournament requiring players to mathematically manipulate numbers on a flash card to reach 24. Both students of Hereford Middle School, Taryn thought they had worked equally hard for the $1,000 savings bond prize.
“I like winning, but I thought before the contest that I?d feel bad if I won, because I knew Casey worked so hard and he was so good,” she said.
On the drive home from the tournament, Taryn said she hatched a plan to make both herself and Casey happy: She taped a $500 check on his door the next day.
And Casey, described by his teachers as a kind and modest seventh-grader, lived up to his reputation. He donated his entire check to a scholarship fund set up to honor Taylor Cunningham, the son of Casey?s math teacher, Kim Cunningham, who died in a recent car crash.
“I heard my mom talking about the scholarship, and it just clicked that that would be something nice to do,” Casey said.
The students and other mathletes were honored Monday with a pizza party hosted by County Executive Jim Smith, who gawked at their lightning-fast calculations in a demonstration of the game.
The annual tournament, sponsored this year by M&T Bank, is divided into three categories ? single digits, fractions and integers ? and winners in each division were all products of Prettyboy Elementary School.
Eighth-grader Jake Quaytman, Taryn?s brother, became the first person to win all three divisions when he captured the integers title this year.
Also modest, he credited Steve Shaffer, a math teacher at Prettyboy Elementary, with encouraging students to play the game, even helping during his lunch hour. All three of this year?s winners were Shaffer?s former students.
Hereford Middle Principal Cathy Walrod said the academic achievements are impressive, but said it was what the students did with their prize money that made her most proud.
“In all my years of education, I have never … .” Walrod said. “It?s such a great feeling, knowing kids can be so kind.”
