The Cupertino Courier

Education

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Nemo Found: Speaking from a 133-inch plasma screen, ÔCrushÕ the sea turtle from the movie ÔFinding Nemo,Õ talks to fifth-grade students at John Muir Elementary School.

Contest winner enjoys visit at school from Nemo, friends

By ERIN HUSSEY

There are those lucky individuals who win free lunches, always cash in at Bingo and win multiple raffles.

Meet 10-year-old Amit Waissman--the grand prize winner of the kid's joke of the day contest held by 94.5 K-BAY, a local soft rock radio station.

"I wasn't home when they called, but when my mom told me, I screamed," says Amit, who has also won lots of other contests.

"The joke is kind of more of my brother's, but he actually stopped saying it about a year ago," she says.

The contest, which ran for two weeks, selected one winner per day and entered the winners into a raffle for the ultimate grand prize: a two night vacation to Disneyland for four and the chance to have the Nemo Dream Mobile stop at their school.

The Nemo Dream Mobile--a 43-foot-long, 13-foot-high submarine on wheels--is being sent out to schools, festivals, aquariums, museums, parks and sporting events along the West Coast to promote the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, the theme park's newest attraction.

"This is the first time we've taken a piece of an attraction and taken out on the road," says Lisa Whaley, promotions manager at Disney Destinations.

"The submarine crew will be out for two months and stop in 11 cities," says Whaley. "Not all of the stops are winner-based, but we love bringing it to the school kids."

The bright yellow and blue Nemo Dream Mobile stopped May 21 at John Muir Elementary School. Amit was honorary "captain" of the day.

Along for the voyage was Nigel, the friendly pelican, the scavenging seagulls, who continuously squawk "mine" and Crush, the laid-back sea turtle.

"Whoa Captain, I totally scope out some mini-human dudes," says Crush, hitting his fin against the large plasma screen embedded in the submarine and made to look like a giant fish tank.

Amit, along with the rest of the fifth-graders at Muir looked up and smiled. During the 15-minute presentation they raised their "fins" to ask Crush questions.

"The mama totally swims up on the beach, dude, and lays like over 100 eggs in the sand," says Crush, explaining how turtles hatch.

"If she buries them in warm sand, they totally hatch all girls, dude, and if she buries the eggs in cooler sand, dude, they hatch all boys. That's why we say dudes are totally cool and chicks are totally hot."

While the students at Muir were the oldest audience Crush and the rest of the Nemo Dream Mobile have had on their voyage, Whaley was not surprised by their enjoyment.

"It's still neat seeing a 40-foot submarine no matter what age," says Whaley. "And it's Nemo--everybody loves Nemo."

Amit's winning joke was:

"There are three people: their names are Poop, Manners and Shut-up. Poop gets ran over by a car, Manners was helping him up.

Shut-up runs to the hospital and the doctor says, "What's your name?"

Shut-up said, "Shut-up.''

The doctor said, "What's your name?''

Shut-up said, "Shut-up.''

Then the doctor said, "Where's your manners?''

Shut-up says, "Outside picking up Poop."