Cookie maker crowns former teacher from Bentonville

 Mary Mae Jones Mary Mae Jones
Mary Mae Jones Mary Mae Jones

BENTONVILLE -- Mary Mae Jones already has her name on a school building. Soon her picture and her story will appear on a box of cookies.

Jones, a former teacher from Bentonville, won the inaugural "Share Your Hero" contest run by Mrs. Fields, a national brand known primarily for its cookies. The contest called on people to nominate someone they consider a hero.

About Mary Mae

The nomination of Mary Mae Jones for the Mrs. Fields Share Your Hero contest contained the following:

“Teaching, volunteering, and mentoring young minds are her passions. Her philosophy for education is simple: all students like to be accepted, appreciated, and challenged. Mrs. Mary Mae continually gives back and she is always on the go. If she is not at one of the ten elementary buildings zipping up and down the hallways greeting students, she is somewhere in the community either supporting our youth or assisting those in need at church.”

Source: MrsFieldsMoments.com

Jones will be featured on a future box of Mrs. Fields cookies. She also will receive a year's supply of cookies, as will the person who nominated her.

"It's an honor, but it's more of an honor for the people who cast their vote for me," Jones said.

Jones, 91, began her teaching career at age 19 in Dumas. She moved to Bentonville in 1962 and was a full-time teacher there until 1995. She taught part-time for 10 more years and retired at age 81.

An elementary school in Bentonville is named after Jones. Hearing she'd won the Mrs. Fields contest was "just about as exciting as it was when they named the school," Jones said.

More than 17,000 people were nominated in this year's Share Your Hero contest, according to the contest's official Twitter account. The company narrowed the field to 10 finalists. Those finalists' names and stories were posted online and the public was invited to vote for the winner during the first two weeks of July.

"I think they chose me because of the color of my hair, my age, and also I think I was the only one listed there who had been a teacher," Jones said.

Jones received 1,938 votes. Whitey Smith, another Northwest Arkansas resident, finished second with 1,669 votes, according to Olivia Wagstaff, an account manager for Delucchi Plus, which handles marketing for Mrs. Fields.

Smith, 78, of Rogers is known as the longtime leader of Whitey's Chicken Cookin' Crew, which has been selling chicken to benefit school teams and clubs for more than 50 years. The football stadium at Rogers High School is named after Smith.

The packages featuring Jones are slated for production and distribution in October, Wagstaff said.

Mrs. Fields is run by Famous Brands International, headquartered in Broomfield, Colo. There are no Mrs. Fields stores in Arkansas, but the cookies are sold in Kroger and Walmart supermarkets.

"I would confidently say they will be distributed there (in Bentonville)," Wagstaff said.

Jamie Gaston, who just completed her first year as a nurse at Mary Mae Jones Elementary School, was the one who nominated Jones. Gaston said Jones made a point to introduce herself to her last fall and has remembered Gaston's name since then.

Jones also frequently visits the school to talk to and encourage students, Gaston said. When Gaston heard about the Mrs. Fields contest through a friend, she immediately thought of Jones.

"The kids love her. Their faces just light up when they see her," Gaston said. "She truly cares about them. One of the reasons I nominated her was she really invests her time to get to know people and remember their names. I just think that makes her a hero that she invests that much time in the kids. She's a very personable lady and she would do anything for anyone."

Jones said she isn't able to get out to the school as much as she used to because of her husband's health. She and Joseph "Jodie" Jones have been married for 67 years.

Gaston said both she and Jones will donate their year's supply of cookies they have won.

"We're still figuring out what we're going to do with the cookies, because our family doesn't need all of those," Gaston said.

Mary Mae Jones Elementary School opened in 2004. As of the end of last school year it enrolled 642 students in grades kindergarten through four.

NW News on 07/30/2015

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