GULF SHORES, Ala. — Lauren Bradford is a bright, active fifth-grader at Gulf Shores Elementary School.

She’s done a few things that most fifth-grade students (and many adults) have not done — she's gotten to ride in her own car in a Mardi Gras-style parade and her writing skills have won a $10,000 Savings Bond for college.

Bradford was the winner of the 10th annual HOAR Construction/GoDaddy.com Bowl Reading and Writing Program. According to her mother, Lisa Bradford, more than 10,000 students from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Tennessee participated in the contest.

Although a little surprised Lauren won the contest, her father, Wade Bradford, says Lauren is “a good student.”

While the first prize is rich, the writing competition was voluntary for Gulf Shores students. Caroline Gamard, a student at Fairhope Intermediate earned $1,000 for her essay.

“It was a volunteer project,” said Kelly Nelson, Lauren’s teacher. “I encouraged all the classes to do this.” She pointed out that participating in the contest is mandatory in some area school systems.

Lauren, Nelson says, may have gotten an extra boost when Ted Dunagan, author of “A Yellow Watermelon,” came to the school on a speaking tour shortly before the essay was due.

The book is set in the 1940s in Alabama’s Clarke County. Two friends, one white, one African-American, discover that the local preacher has a drinking problem, a mill owner is a bootlegger and thief, and the local sheriff isn’t all he should be.

“The book was about race and how people are all the same,” said Lauren.

“The book was really on my level,” she continued. “I was thinking of one book I had read in third grade, and I re-read it and it was a little too young for me.”

Lauren learned that her grandparents live in the part of Clarke County Dunagan wrote about.

Nelson added that her family has a camp in that area and relatives in the area as well.

While Nelson and Lauren’s mother offered suggestions on the “Yellow Watermelon” essay, both say the work was entirely Lauren’s.

Lauren wrote a 250-word report on he book. All the essays submitted were judged by a panel of educators, and the finalists were asked to read Paul Zindel’s “The Pigman.”

Lauren says she had about a week to read the 176-page book, and then had to write an essay on “Pigman” with the other finalists.

“They had one hour to write the essay,” said Lisa Bradford.

Taking time out to read the book was a struggle with Lauren’s schedule. The honor student takes violin lessons, hopes to get involved with softball, and is a “Red Ribbon” representative against drug abuse at her school.

“We would have never known about this contest without Ms. Nelson,” said Wade Bradford.

Lauren enjoyed participating in the parade.

“It was a lot of fun to throw those beads,” she said with a smile.

Dunagan has followed Lauren’s progress carefully, Nelson says, sending her a letter of congratulations as well as a copy of his latest book, “Secret of the Satilfa,” a sequel to “Yellow Watermelon.”

But more importantly, she may have a direction to follow.

“I am thinking of becoming a writer,” she said.