The Pantagraph announced the conclusion of the tomato growing contest that had started in the spring of 1915. The agriculture teacher of the department of education, Mr. Evan Kerns, distributed 15,000 tomato plants to 1,500 school children in the spring. Of all those children, 600 of them requested that Mr. Kerns or another school official visit their tomato patches through the summer so that they could take part in the great contest to see who could raise the most tomatoes. Mr. Kerns and his assistant, Waldo Johnson spent the summer and fall weighing tomatoes and inspecting tomato plants.
In November, after the last killing frost, the many statistics that were gathered over the summer and fall were tallied. It was found that among the 100 children who had completed the experiment and had their tomatoes weighed, they had produced 5,621 pounds of tomatoes. Mr. Kerns estimated that the children who did not have their produce weighed there could have been as many as 10,000 pounds of produce, using a conservative estimate.
The children who took part were not competing merely for bragging rights and juicy tomatoes but for cold hard cash! Kenneth Wells of 107 Fairview won second place at Washington Grade School and received $3. Vuelta Haynes of 607 S Madison was the 1st place winner at Jefferson Grade School. Mary Kimler was the first place winner at Emerson School. She lived in Dawson, IL with her parents and two older sisters. Later in life she would go to ISNU and become a school teacher herself. Ethel Jaiser was the first place winner at Irving School. She married a house carpenter and lived at 1104 W Jackson Street as an adult.
The Parent Teacher Association had supplied the money for the cash prizes. The teachers provided the time, energy and ingenuity to create this long term lesson for the children that provided nutritious food and good life skills.