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Health essay is voted No. 1

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: May 27, 2009

TAMPA - Sienna Henson and her family got up extra early May 15 to get ready for her ride to school.

There was no yellow bus or carpool driver waiting. Instead, a black stretch limousine pulled to the curb as the Hensons watched. A chauffer stepped out and opened one of the doors.

Derrick Brooks emerged.

Hunter, 8 and a Buccaneers fan, was bouncing off the walls, his sister said. Her father, Dave, clad in his No. 1 Dad Bucs T-shirt, was also pretty excited. Ten-year-old Sienna took in the glamour of the limo but kept her poise around the celebrity.

The former Buccaneers linebacker posed for photos and signed autographs for the family, before Sienna, Hunter and Dave piled into the limo with Brooks. Sienna's mother, grandfather and young sister followed them to Miles Elementary.

Sienna, a fourth-grader at Miles, won the chance to ride with Brooks and take him to her classroom through a regional essay contest on healthy living.

"It was just really amazing," Sienna said. "I'll remember this day for a really long time."

Her father and "Mr. Brooks" talked football on the ride. Hunter sat next to him but was too nervous to ask any questions. Dave told him that even if he played for another team this fall, he would "always be a Buccaneer."

"He's beyond a phenomenal player," Dave Henson said. "He's a great inspiration to the community. It's wonderful to have people in the public eye who make themselves a positive example."

At Miles, in North Tampa, Sienna's classmates got to have breakfast with Brooks and ask him questions before joining the rest of the school in an assembly.

Children wanted to know whether he played sports other than football, if he ever got injured and how he supported his team. One little girl asked what team he would play for next year. The Bucs released him in February.

Brooks said he didn't know yet but had talked to several teams. He told her he had to weigh his options, including not playing at all.

"The Lord's blessed me that if I don't want to play, I really don't have to," he said.

The National Football League and National Dairy Council joined this year to promote nutrition and fitness through a program called Fuel Up to Play. Part of that was the essay contest the Florida Dairy Council ran with Brooks for fourth-graders in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Sienna's essay took first place out of the 72 entries. Andrew Lauer of Winter Haven placed second, and Katie Ferrucci, who attends Lithia Springs Elementary in Valrico, got third.

Jennifer Whittaker Sills, the dairy council's school marketing director, said Sienna won praise from the judges for her wide vocabulary and strong sentence structure and grammar. Her teacher, Amanda McKnight, had recommended Sienna for the contest because she writes so well.

Sienna said she loves to write and would like to work on a fiction book. As captain of her class's Battle of the Books team, she also is a voracious reader.

Her essay pointed out that children might beg for more time reading e-mail when their parents tell them to play outside, but they should listen for the good of their health. They should know the benefits of exercise and nutritious food, Sienna wrote.

"Eating healthy cuisine also gives us energy to play with our friends, jump rope and ride our bicycles," she wrote.

Brooks said the chance to counter childhood obesity while spending time with students appealed to him. He told them how he rises early to eat breakfast before working out four to five days a week, and how he likes to golf the other days or coach his son's baseball team.

He said one of his favorite foods was grapefruit, which drew some grimaces.

"I'll be honest with you, I like a little fast food myself," he said. "But if you're going to eat those things, you've got to exercise to burn those calories off."

He also told them to respect their teachers and fellow classmates to create a positive environment for themselves. He hoped they would make good choices.

"You're going to eat healthy," he said, "you're going to exercise and you're going to be respectful."

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (727) 451-2343.

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