1 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Winners of the Hoover police and fire departments' 2025 police essay contest, firefigher poetry contest and fire prevention art contest, pose for a photo with city and school leaders at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. From left are Hoover schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox, Spain Park High School senior Geraldine Flores, Greystone Elementary fifth grader Anna Kate Underwood, Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis, Hoover High senior Chelsea Schafer, Trace Crossings Elementary fifth grader Madison Headley, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, Trace Crossings Elementary third grader James Schlueter and Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley.
2 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Madison Headley, a fifth grader from Trace Crossings Elementary School, talks about her fire prevention artwork that won the Hoover Fire Department's 2025 fire prevention art contest at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
3 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley presents the Hoover Fire Department's 2025 fire prevention art contest award to Madison Headley, a fifth grader at Trace Crossings Elementary School, at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
4 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover HIgh School chamber choir sings at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
5 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Cyndi Hodges, the president of the Hoover Parent Teacher Council, speaks at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
6 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis poses for a photo with essay contest winners Geraldine Flores, Anna Kate Underwood and Kelsea Schafer at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
7 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Anna Kate Underwood, a fifth grader at Greystone Elementary School, poses for a photo with her school resource officer, Katie Bonham Sullivan, at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
8 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley, left, and members of the Hoover Fire Marshal's Office pose for a photo with Trace Crossings Elementary fifth grader Madison Headley, who won the 2025 fire prevention art contest, at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
9 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis poses for a photo with Hoover High School senior Kelsea Schafer, who won the Hoover Police Department's essay contest at Hoover High, after the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
10 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley poses for a photo with Trace Crossings Elementary School third grader James Schlueter, who won the Fire Department's 2025 firefighter poetry contest, at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
11 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis speaks at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
12 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover pollice Chief NIck Derzis presents the Hoover Police Departments school resource officer essay contest award to Anna Kate Underwood, a fifth grader at Greystone Elementary School, at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
13 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Alan Song, the retired co-founder and chief technology officer for Precision Microbio and DoubleHelix Specialists, speaks at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
14 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley speaks at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
15 of 15
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Parent Teacher Council President Cyndi Hodges speaks at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast at Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.
The Hoover police and fire departments on Thursday presented awards to winners of their annual Police Department essay contests, fire prevention art contest and firefighter poetry contest for students in Hoover City Schools.
The awards were given out at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast put on by the Hoover Parent Teacher Council at Discovery United Methodist Church.
Kelsea Schafer was the essay contest winner from among seniors at Hoover High School, and Geraldine Flores won from among seniors at Spain Park High. Each student won a $1,000 scholarship provided by Police Department donor Frank Barefield for essays they wrote about peer pressure. The essays were written as letters to younger siblings and read aloud at Thursday’s breakfast.
Schafer said most people deny the dangers of peer pressure and sweep it under the rug, but avoiding the issue will only foster it, leaving vulnerable students not knowing how to decline invitations to pressure, forgetting the goals set for themselves and choosing their friends unwisely.
“Facing peer pressure can feel like walking a tightrope, being pulled in two different directions, hoping to remain balanced, and not dropping everything you have worked towards,” Schafer said. “The only way to stay balanced is to adopt the mindset that no is a full sentence.”
The pressure to do things you really don’t want to do can be daunting and leaving you nervous about hurting the other person’s feelings, but the person putting pressure on you often doesn’t have your best interest at heart, Schafer said.
“One of the most important concepts I have learned in my high school journey is that no is a full sentence. You do not owe anyone reasoning for your boundaries and unwillingness to do something that you are uncomfortable with,” she said. “You can simply say, ‘No, I am not
interested.’”
The best practice is to set goals for yourself and focus your mind on achieving those goals, and the friends for which you yearn will fall into place, Schafer said.
“Making these choices has allowed me to remain calm and strong in my convictions and not succumb to peer pressure,” she said.
Flores wrote about an experience she had as a freshman where she felt pressure to go to a Friday night party with some questionable activity. Fearful of losing friends, she went to the party but pretty much regretted going from the moment she entered, she said.
She learned from that experience and encouraged her younger brother to say no when challenged to do something he knows is not right. When she did that, it wasn’t always easy, and she lost some friends along the way, but in the end, choosing to do the right thing was worth it, she said.
She told her brother it’s OK to stand out when you stand up for something you believe.
Anna Kate Underwood, a fifth grader at Greystone Elementary, won the fifth grade essay contest about school resource officers.
Underwood wrote about Sgt. Katie Bonham Sullivan, the school resource officer at her school. She talked about how Sullivan was there at school every morning, helping students safely get out of their vehicles and into the building. “It doesn’t matter if it’s rain or sunshine. You can count on her to be there,” Underwood said.
Sullivan has a tough and demanding job, but she always makes it look easy, Underwood said. She talks to the fifth graders about not doing drugs, drinking or smoking and about how going to middle school will be a different experience with new types of pressure, and she keeps watch over students when they’re on the playground and helps keep strangers out of the wrong areas, Underwood said. She wishes Sullivan could go to middle school with her, she said.
Madison Headley, a fifth grader at Trace Crossings Elementary, won the fire prevention art contest, and James Schlueter, a third grader at Trace Crossings, won the firefighter poetry contest.
The theme of this year’s fire prevention art contest was about making smoke detectors work for you, fire Chief Clay Bentley said. It’s an important topic and one that means a lot to him because he had an aunt die from a house fire where there were no operating smoke detectors, he said.
His grandparents were burned and hospitalized for weeks, and his father and uncle were injured, trying to rescue his aunt, he said. He wasn’t born yet, but his mother likes to say he was always destined to be a firefighter because of the trauma he went through in her womb that fateful night, he said.
Attendees at the Hoover City Leaders Breakfast also heard a message from Alan Song, a retired co-founder and chief technology officer for Precision Microbio and DoubleHelix Specialists who was instrumental in the creation of one of the first COVID-19 tests available in the world.
For two years, in the midst of the global pandemic, Song and his wife, Lindsey, traveled across the United States, taking their test to labs all over the country. The couple sold their business and retired in 2022 and have become philanthropists.
Song on Thursday talked about the traits that make someone a great leader, focusing on an experience he and his wife went through after she suffered a life-threatening aneurism in November 2023.
For 12 months, his wife showed impeccable courage as she went through painstaking rehabilitation for eight hours a day, he said. She showed great perseverance and courage to push past pain, failure and discouragement, he said.
Courage and vision are important traits for a leader, but they are nothing without empathy and integrity, Song said.
“Integrity is pivotal to becoming a great leader. It requires strong moral principles and a commitment to doing what is right , even when it is difficult,” Song said. “You will face adversity, and when you do, I want you to remember that every challenge you face is an opportunity to build empathy for others.”
As he and his wife went through their battle together, they could have wallowed in their pain and continually asked why this would happen to them, but they chose to form a new vision together, he said.
They developed a newfound empathy for others and a greater appreciation for all the nurses and physical therapists who assisted Lindsey as she recovered, he said. He encouraged the students in attendance to forge a similar path, congratulated them on their awards and said it’s only the beginning of incredible things to come.
