The "Why Mom Deserves a Diamond" contest is an American essay contest founded by Michael "Diamond Mike" Watson in Costa Mesa, California in 1993. The contest was established in honor of Watson's adoptive mother and the birth mother he had never known. In a limited number of words, children are asked to write essays explaining why their mother deserves a diamond.
Hundreds of thousands of American children have participated, and dozens of children have won the grand prize of a diamond to give to their mothers (and other precious gems).[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The first winner was sophomore Margaret Ketchersid, from Edison High School in Huntington Beach, California. On Mother's Day 1993, she was awarded the grand prize of a quarter-carat diamond to give to her mother, Ruth.
Michael "Diamond Mike" Watson was born and adopted in Indianapolis in 1958. He spent his early life in New Albany, where his adopted parents raised him. The foundation of the contest began while Watson was searching for his own birth mother when he was 17.[8]
About the same time he started his quest, Watson entered the jewelry industry as an errand boy for a store in New Albany. He joined a retail chain and worked in jewelry stores in Indiana, Kentucky and Kansas City, then moved to California in 1989.[9] In 1991, Watson opened Gallery of Diamonds Jewelers in Costa Mesa, California.[10]
Watson obtained a copy of his hospital bill from Community Hospital, which showed his mother's name (Betty Price) and age. Armed with this information, he embarked on a search that lasted nearly 20 years. Watson found the judge who had presided over the adoption only to learn that the records were sealed. The judge did, however, give Watson the report by the Department of Public Welfare, which contained information about his birth mother.[11] The report listed names and a wedding date, and he contacted every county in Indiana to locate a wedding license. In mid-1994 he heard from the courthouse in Coatesville that the information on the license matched. He found that his birth mother's maiden name was Stewart, and also discovered her parents' address and telephone number.[12] When calling his biological grandmother, she said that no one knew he was alive because his birth mother told the family he was stillborn. He learned that his mother had died in 1981.[13]
Watson then learned he had an infant sister that vanished before he was born. Thus began a new journey to find his missing sibling. With the help of five genealogical researchers in which Watson named the Fabulous Five,[14] Watson finally found his missing sister alive and well in 2017.[15] That same year, with the miracle of DNA matching, Watson discovered his paternal Syrian Jewish roots and that he came from a long ancestry of distinguished rabbis from Aleppo, Syria. His great great grandfather was Hakham Mordechai Abadi.[16] [17] [18]
From 1993 to 2012, Watson published the winning entries in an annual book to raise money for the local county's library.[19] Over the years, thousands of children submit their essays to the company's headquarters in Santa Ana, California, and come to Gallery of Diamonds Jewelers every year.[20]
Watson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Indiana University Southeast and is a gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America. He is the author of Moon Over Mountains- The Search for Mom, The Legend of Why Mom Deserves a Diamond, Tales of Imagination- Everything is Real, In Search of Mom- Journey of an Adoptee, and Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother.[21]
| Year | Winner | Grade | School | City | State | |
| 1993 | Margaret Ketchersid | 10 | Edison HS | Huntington Beach | CA | |
| 1994 | Alison Murphy | 10 | Capistrano Valley HS | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 1995 | Scott Kircher | 6 | Harbor Day | Corona del Mar | CA | |
| 1996 | Megan Darakjian | 4 | Cordillera | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 1996 | Lauren Kiang | 7 | La Paz Intermediate | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 1997 | Jessica Barraco | 4 | Eastshore Elementary | Irvine | CA | |
| 1997 | Genevieve Slunka | 11 | Irvine High | Irvine | CA | |
| 1998 | Jason Kirstein | 3 | Westwood Basics | Irvine | CA | |
| 1998 | Tawnya Ravy | 7 | Bernardo M.S. | Yorba Linda | CA | |
| 1998 | Vicki Ann Blood | 4 | St. Pancratius | Lakewood | CA | |
| 1998 | Jennifer Plankenhorn | 8 | Arroyo Seco | Valencia | CA | |
| 1999 | Blair Perkins | 5 | Taft Elementary | Orange | CA | |
| 1999 | Paula Kim | 7 | Los Alisos | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 1999 | Roberto Ruiz | 5 | St. Malachy | Los Angeles | CA | |
| 1999 | Chris Olsen-Philips | 6 | Binford Elementary | Bloomington | IN | |
| 1999 | Brice Tomlinson | 6 | Trinity Christian Academy | Addison | TX | |
| 2000 | Sandy Enriquez | 5 | Gilbert Elem. | Garden Grove | CA | |
| 2000 | Tiffany Lamanski | 7 | St. Pius V | Buena Park | CA | |
| 2000 | Rachel Tomberlin | 7 | St. Timothy Episcopal | Apple Valley | CA | |
| 2000 | Victor Taylor | 5 | St. Mary | New Albany | IN | |
| 2000 | Ashley Goodell | 8 | Chippewa M.S. | Okemos | MI | |
| 2000 | Laura Cataldi | 10 | Nardin Academy | Buffalo | NY | |
| 2000 | Ashley Kreidler | 11 | St. Johns | Delphos | OH | |
| 2000 | Jennifer Scruggs | 5 | Sleepy Hollow Elementary | Amarillo | TX | |
| 2001 | E. J. Debowski | 4 | John Malcolm | Laguna Niguel | CA | |
| 2001 | Alyssa Connella | 7 | La Paz | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2001 | Jesus Hernandez, Jr. | 12 | St. Thomas High | Houston | TX | |
| 2002 | Harry Hudson | 2 | Bathgate Elem. | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2002 | Amanda Wheeler | 7 | Los Alisos | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2002 | Matthew W. Scott | 11 | Heartland High | Belton | MO | |
| 2003 | Aris Simsarian | 2 | De Portola Elem. | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2003 | Logan Cluttey | 8 | Los Flores M.S. | R. Sta. Margarita | CA | |
| 2003 | Travis Dziad | 6 | St. Mary's | Greenville | SC | |
| 2004 | Tyler Buttle | 5 | Reilly Elementary | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2004 | Erica Haggerty | 8 | St. Angela Merici | Brea | CA | |
| 2004 | Lindsey Croft | 12 | Nevada Union High | Grass Valley | CA | |
| 2005 | Analyse Groton | 4 | Linda Vista Elem. | Orange | CA | |
| 2005 | Jason Punzalon | 8 | Servite High | Anaheim | CA | |
| 2005 | Emily Magers | 6 | Timberview M.S. | Colorado Springs | CO | |
| 2006 | Kevin Banifatemi | 5 | De Portola Elem. | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2006 | Laura Chae | 7 | Sierra Vista M.S. | Irvine | CA | |
| 2006 | Sera Choi | 7 | Becker M.S. | Las Vegas | NV | |
| 2007 | Grace Penner | 5 | Brookhaven Ele. | Placentia | CA | |
| 2007 | Michael Glidden | 11 | Capistrano Valley HS | Mission Viejo | CA | |
| 2008 | Sophia Vazquez | 2 | Jim Thorpe Fund. | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2008 | Linda Huynh | 7 | Fred Moila | Fountain Valley | CA | |
| 2009 | David Duplissey | 4 | Ambuehl Ele. | San Juan Capistr. | CA | |
| 2009 | Cheryl Bond | 7 | Oak Middle School | Los Alamitos | CA | |
| 2010 | Harvey Zhou | 4 | Canyon View Elem. | Irvine | CA | |
| 2010 | Thomas Loi | 8 | Bethel Baptist | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2011 | Leah Korenberg | 1 | Los Coyotes | La Palma | CA | |
| 2011 | Charlie Xu | 8 | Rancho San Joaquin | Irvine | CA | |
| 2012 | Makenzie Kaufman | 4 | Vista Verde | Irvine | CA | |
| 2012 | Lauren Lee | 8 | Fairmont Private | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2013 | Gage Butterfield | 6 | Crescent Intermediate | Anaheim | CA | |
| 2013 | Tony Scarsciotti | 4 | Benson Elementary | Tustin | CA | |
| 2014 | Nikki Young | 7 | MacArthur Fundamental | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2014 | Sarah Stern | 11 | University High | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2014 | Benjamin Pham | 3 | Roch Courreges Elementary | Fountain Valley | CA | |
| 2015 | Gavin Mosher | 7 | California Virtual Academy | Trabuco Canyon | CA | |
| 2015 | Neha Abbas | 5 | John O. Tynes | Placentia | CA | |
| 2016 | Danali Olivares | 7 | Mendez Fundamental | Santa Ana | CA | |
| 2016 | Gina Kim | 5 | Margaret Landell Elementary | Cypress | CA | |
| 2017 | Joseph Hamby | 6 | Emery Elementary | Buena Park | CA | |
| 2017 | Lauren Morgan | 3 | Gilbert Elementary | Garden Grove | CA | |
| 2018 | Katelyn Oho | 4 | Robert Fisler Elementary | Fullerton | CA | |
| 2018 | Leah Korenberg | 4 | Christ Lutheran School | Costa Mesa | CA | |
| 2019 | Mai Han Tran | 5 | Eastwood Elementary | Westminister | CA | |
| 2019 | Allison Kim | 6 | Margaret Landell Elementary | Cypress | CA | |
| 2020 | Genevieve Raphael | 5 | Vista Verde School | Irvine | CA | |
| 2020 | Brayden Nguyen | 8 | Bethany Christian Academy | Westminster | CA | |
| 2021 | Giselle Nguyen | 2 | Northcutt Elementary | Fountain Valley | CA | |
| 2021 | Dylan Tran | 6 | Eastwood Elementary | Westminster | CA | |
| 2022 | Jason Ross | 6 | St. John’s Episcopal | Rancho Santa Margarita | CA | |
| 2023 | Claire Cho | 6 | Landell Elementary | Cypress | CA | |
| 2024 | Zennia Achouri | 5 | Westpark School | Irvine | CA |
The trademark Why Mom Deserves a Diamond was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark office on July 27, 2001, registration number 2,620,840. The trademark, The Legendary Contest, received registration on April 17, 2007, as "A writing contest in which kids can honor their mothers and have the chance to win a diamond or gemstone." Reg #3229618.
From 1993 to 2012, Gallery of Diamonds Jewelers, the founding sponsor of the contest, published an annual anthology of the winners. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of these books were donated to the Orange County Library system in Orange County, California. Following are the book titles and the years they were published.