Addis: Students first class all around
<p>Danielle Hughson, a recent graduate of Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, reacts after she realized she was the winner a 2014 Ford Fiesta from Tom Addis Lake City Ford Thursday at Lake City High School. Nathan Park, a Lakeland senior, reacts as his name was called as the last of five others to be eliminated from the drawing.</p>
<p>Danielle Hughson reacts after chatting with Tom Addis about the Ford car that she won. For about 15 years Addis has offered a car to the top ten percent of high school seniors in Kootenai County.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Those grumbling about "the kids today," should meet the 125 or so high school overachievers who qualified to win a Ford Fiesta from car dealer Tom Addis.
The young scholars come from the top 10 percent of their graduating classes at Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy and Timberlake, Lakeland, Lake City, Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls high schools. This is roughly the 15th year of Addis' car giveaway.
Addis told the assembled students on Thursday at Lake City High School that all past winners have been "first-class" individuals.
"But, let me extend that; everybody here is first-class, and everybody is a winner," Addis told them.
A perfect example of being first-class is Danielle Hughson, 18, who actually won the sporty gray Fiesta.
"I was sitting there, I was like, 'Oh, it's not going to be me,'" said Hughson, of Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy. "I'm not lucky - I don't get picked for things very much."
Well, she doesn't get picked randomly, anyway.
She currently has been driving a 1993 Volvo.
"There's a huge stain in the driveway because the oil just leaks out," Hughson said. "I kind of have a car."
She's a superstar student, earning a $200,000 scholarship, and will be attending her dream school - Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
"She's very studious, very on-target," said Janet Stevens, Hughson's mom. "But she drives a bomber car."
"She's exceeded all of our expectations," said dad, Dan Hughson.
The drawing made Hughson's life better, but it was torture for Nathan Park, 17, of Lakeland.
The name of one student from each of the six schools was drawn from a tumbler by Addis.
Those students took a seat on stage in the auditorium.
Then the real excitement began.
The six names were placed in the tumbler again. Each name that was drawn after that eliminated the student, and they walk off the stage.
Finally, Park was alone on stage with Hughson when his name was drawn, handing Hughson the Fiesta.
"I think I would have felt a lot better about being knocked out if I was knocked out first," Park said. "Just coming down to those odds was like, 'Why?'"
His mind raced from thinking he wouldn't be called up on stage at all - peers from Lakeland were more deserving, he said - to thinking about explaining to friends later that he won.
"I was really just, like, kind of shaking because of how close I was," Park said. "Oh well, I guess."