Staff Writer
MAPLETON – Alyssa Trombley knows her father, Craig, is a “top pop,” and now so do a lot of other people.
Having recently completed fourth-grade at Mapleton Elementary School, Alyssa’s essay was recently chosen the elementary division winner in the Top Pop Time Warner’s Best Dad Contest.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
ALYSSA TROMBLEY, right, who recently completed fourth-grade at Mapleton Elementary School, was the elementary division winner in the Top Pop Time Warner’s Best Dad Contest. As a division winner, she received a backpack filled with Sea Dogs souvenirs, a classroom computer for her fourth-grade teacher, Christi Doyen, while her family won a high definition (HD) television, free HD cable for one year, as well as tickets to a Portland Sea Dogs game. As the “Top Pop,” her father, Craig, pictured with his 10-year-old daughter, received a trophy and a T-shirt.
“Mrs. [Gail] Gibson found out about the contest and told Mrs. [Leslee] Mahon, my Gifted & Talented teacher, about it,” said 10-year-old Alyssa. “Mrs. Mahon then had us write the essay and then she sent it in for us.
“It was easy to write about my Dad,” she said. “As I wrote it, I thought about what he does with me, and what kind of person he is. I talked about things we like to do together like play baseball and ride snowmobiles. Those are some fun things we like to do.”
Craig said he never even knew Alyssa wrote the essay until she was selected a top 25 finalist.
“I didn’t find out until a letter came in the mail,” he said. “She was trying to surprise me, and it truly was. I do those things for her because I love her, but I didn’t realize that it meant so much to her.”
As a division winner, Alyssa received a backpack filled with Sea Dogs souvenirs, a classroom computer for her fourth-grade teacher, Christi Doyen, while her family won a high definition (HD) television, free HD cable for one year, as well as tickets to a Portland Sea Dogs game. As the “Top Pop,” Craig received a trophy and a T-shirt.
“She’s going to keep the trophy,” said Craig. “She told me I could have it at my office for a week.”
“The game was Sunday, June 8,” said Alyssa. “For April vacation, we went to a Sea Dogs game, so I had been before. It was a lot of fun even though they didn’t win.”
The contest was open to students in grades four through 12 who live in a Time Warner Cable service area.
“Students from Maine and New Hampshire submitted essays and of the 600 entries, 25 were selected as finalists,” said Gibson, Alyssa’s principal. “A panel of judges then selected a winner in the elementary, middle and high school categories, and we’re just so pleased that Alyssa won.”
“I was surprised I won,” said Alyssa. “The best part of winning was telling my Dad.”
While Alyssa kept the contest a secret from her father, Craig’s girlfriend, Michele Cormier, was told about it.
“I told her that I sent in the essay,” Alyssa said, “and she kept on asking me if I had gotten anything back. When I finally got something back in the mail, she and my Dad were talking, so I made her come into my Dad’s room and I told her. She got all excited when she realized I was a finalist.”
It was at Time Warner Cable’s fifth annual Top Pop Picnic held at Hadlock Field June 8 that Alyssa found out she was the elementary division winner.
“We were in the picnic area, and they announced the top 25 winners, and then the division winners,” said Alyssa. “That’s when I learned I won. I was so excited.”
“The picnic was great,” Craig said. “There was free food and drink for the top 25 and their families, plus ice cream. The team mascot, Slugger, and his dad were there posing for pictures. At the beginning of the game, all 25 winners went out with softballs and threw out the first pitch. There were 7,000 people in attendance and they announced the winners’ names over the loud speaker so that was really cool.”
Alyssa’s mother, Deanna, passed away nearly five years ago of cancer, and her father has taken on both parental roles.
“I think that’s what’s making me more special to her … not having her mom there and I’m taking the role of both … trying my best … and I think she knows that,” said Craig.
“Craig makes Alyssa a part of everything that he does in his life,” Gibson said. “Craig’s been a baseball fan for a very long time, so the things that Alyssa wrote about are the things that are Craig. He even coaches her Little League team.”
This was the fifth year Time Warner sponsored the Top Pop contest.
Alyssa’s essay is as follows:
My Dad is the Greatest
My dad Craig Trombley is the world’s greatest dad because he knows how to have a good laugh even when he is sad. My mom passed away a few years ago, but he doesn’t let it get to him and tries hard to take care of us. Sometimes it is hard to be an only parent.
When I feel sad he comforts me and asks me what’s wrong; he always finds a way to make me smile. I have always liked baseball but have never really been that good at it until I did Little League last summer and he helped me to hit the ball and catch it. He was encouraging and bought me cleats, a baseball bat and gloves. I was voted the most improved player for the whole team.
My dad plows people’s driveways. Last year for April (spring) vacation he took us to Disney World and it was during a big snowstorm but he had some of his workers plow some of his driveways for him so we could go to Disney.
My dad helps me and my sister with homework, but always leaves time for himself so he doesn’t get overworked. My dad once took me and my sister Anna to our little camp a few miles from Presque Isle. It has a big lake next to it and it is a little log cabin. My dad has two snowmobiles; one is his and one was my mom’s. He takes us for snowmobile rides every winter and pulls us around on a sled in our field out back. I sit in the sled that my dad ties on the back of his snowmobile. He will take us over jumps that will throw us off the sled.
My dad is the best dad in the world! Even though he is a single parent, he still takes time for me and my sister.
(Editor’s note: Two other local students were named top 25 finalists. Kori Malenfant, a student at Zippel Elementary School, nominated her father, Kevin, while Taylor Williams, who also attends Zippel Elementary School, nominated her dad, Michael. Their essays appear on the Viewpoints page in this issue of The Star-Herald).
