Decorah High School gest $10,000 prize--for drinking chocolate milk!

Decorah High School has won a $10,000 grant--all for drinking a lot of chocolate milk.

The school was selected by the Midwest Dairy Council as the winner of a contest to see which high school would drink the most chocolate milk. Decorah High School won by a wide margin, with its students drinking the equivalent of 62,289 eight-ounce servings of chocolate milk from November 2nd through December 4th of 2009.

Decorah High School students Allie Canoy and Mollie King say the secret to winning the contest was getting organized. The students convinced school officials to hold a pep assembly to kick off the chocolate milk drinking contest. They also brought in chocolate milk cartons during Monday morning homerooms, talked with athletes about drinking chocolate milk after practices and encouraged students to bring in the caps from jugs of chocolate milk they had drunk at their homes.

"The lunch ladies helped us a lot," said Canoy. As a result, the high school finished with an average of 24 ounces of chocolate milk consumed each day by each student.

Decorah High School Principal Kim Sheppard says the students have been just as organized in coming up with ideas on how to spend the $10,000 grand prize. A committee of students and teachers has discussed a number of wellness ideas, including buying yoga mats and exercise DVDs and creating a sand volleyball court at the high school. High School student Alex Hobbs says it's likely the school will get new dumbbells--but will have shop classes at the school make the dumbbells as a way of stretching the money.

School officials say they're also planning a schoolwide Health Fair for May and will hold another pep assembly some time in the future to announce the name of the student who drank the most chocolate milk during the five-week period.

(For more information about the contest, visit http://dairystar.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=4343&TM=58974.63.

(Pictured above, seated, left to right): Decorah High School students Amber Kelgeson, Mollie King, Allie Canoy and Alex Hobbs. (Standing, left to right): Decorah HS Principal Kim Sheppard, Lang's Dairy representative Bruce Hanson, Brynsaas Sales representative Randy Brynsaas and dairy consultant Charles Lore. The three men, along with Kent Nelson from Nelson Dairy Consultants, purchased and donated cases of chocolate milk to the high school as part of the contest.