Texting contest benefits Valley boy

About 20 area high schoolers competed Saturday thumb-versus-thumb for cash prizes in a citywide text-message contest at Central Valley High School.

Instead of costing their parents more money to send text messages, winners Emma Vidmar and Josh Campos each came away with prizes worth about $500. Vidmar won the phone-touchpad category and Campos the Blackberry-style keypad phone competition.

The event was the brainchild of Brooke Jackson and Kassie Panther, both students at CV and members of the school’s DECA business marketing group.

The two organized the contest to raise money to defray the medical bills of Hayden Stipe. The 7-year-old Spokane Valley boy, who has cerebral palsy, is receiving nontraditional treatments in Poland to gain strength and mobility. Jackson’s family has helped the Stipes in the past with other fundraisers.

Jackson said the event – despite low attendance – raised $700 for the Stipe family.

The winners, Campos and Vidmar, are both CV students. In text-messaging competition, contestants sit near an overhead screen. A paragraph appears onscreen, and competitors have 20 seconds to type the message. They get a point for spelling each word right and one extra point for each correct punctuation mark. They lose points for incorrect spelling and punctuation.

Alie Pruitt, a Rogers High School junior, didn’t win her category but had fun nonetheless. “Texting normally is easy because you know what you’re writing. It’s a lot harder when they give you something you’ve never seen before.”

Campos, 17, competed in the keyboard-only category in part because he already types 120 words a minute.

“Another thing that helps is that I play guitar. My hands are already pretty relaxed and loose,” he said.