The three winning “Design a Donut” donuts were created by Riverfront Nutrition. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

An R.C. Waters Elementary teacher’s lessons on persuasive writing turned out pretty sweet for her third-grade class. Alexa Weis challenged her Oak Harbor students to compete in a pretend “Design a Donut” contest. Each student designed a unique doughnut flavor and wrote a persuasive paper to convince a pretend doughnut shop owner to choose their creation for the featured doughnut of the week.

When Riverfront Nutrition manager Amber Barbour read about the project on Facebook, she turned herself into a real-live doughnut maker and made doughnuts inspired by three of the students’ creations. On Nov. 30, she delivered dozens of doughnuts to Weis’ class.

The top winning doughnuts that Barbour recreated were Soccer Ball Supreme by Quinn Guerin, Super Baconator by Braxton Bauer, and Ohio State Supreme by Mason Johnson.

Riverfront Nutrition manager Amber Barbour, left back, and third grade teacher Alexa Weis stand with the class’s top three doughnut designers. They are, from left, Mason Johnson, Quinn Guerin and Braxton Bauer. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

Riverfront Nutrition offers meal replacement shakes and other healthier-option foods like protein bites, popsicles and protein doughnuts.

“I take regular doughnuts and make a healthier doughnut. They have some protein to balance out the sugar and carbohydrates,” Barbour told the class. “I tried to make these doughnuts as close as I could to your doughnuts.”

Johnson’s Ohio State Supreme doughnut tasted like peanut butter buckeye candy. He was inspired to create it after attending an OSU game.

“They won, so I was thinking maybe a football doughnut, and then I thought of buckeyes,” Johnson said. “Writing this was really fun. I thought I was going to get fourth or something. I was really excited to be in the top three.”

Zeke Frederick enjoys a Soccer Ball Supreme doughnut designed by Quinn Guerin and made by Riverfront Nutrition manager Amber Barbour. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

What did Johnson think of Barbour’s version of his Ohio State Supreme doughnut?

“It was really good. It was better than what I was expecting,” he said. “All the other doughnuts were good, too.”

Persuasive writing is an advanced skill for third graders, but Weis found a way to make writing relevant to a third grader’s life.

“As the year goes on, our projects get more and more challenging,” she said. “As they get more challenging, I try to make them more fun and relatable to their lives. It makes them more eager to write.”

In the end, the students discovered that writing yields sweet rewards.

“I was surprised when I got called for my doughnut to be made,” Bauer said. “As soon as I heard, I told my parents. They couldn’t believe it.”

Third grade teacher Alexa Weis hands out doughnuts to her students. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)