Freshmen Aniyah Henson walks into Fort Osage High School at the beginning of third hour for her first class of the day out of two. She sits down in her seat in the choir room waiting for Mrs. Julie Ammons to give directions. When freshmen Leilani Pese and Trista McRae arrive, the three go into the back room to collaborate on lyrics for a Grandma’s Catering Jingle Contest. Henson qualified as a runner-up and the FOHS choir department was awarded $250 for her submission.

“I did not know that my song would be on radio stations, so I was really surprised and excited,” Henson said.

You can listen to her stunning voice on stations such as 93.3, 99.7, 102.1, 107.3, and 810 AM.

“Aniyah started the writing the lyrics and then Trista and I helped her work words in, like the word ‘brownie’ took us over a week,” Pese said.

Pese and McRae told Henson that the jingle was a project so they had to work together to get an A.

“We all had ideas so we put them together,” McRae said. “It took us three weeks to come up with 15 seconds.”

McRae did not know it was not a project until after it was submitted.

“Aniyah has a really pretty voice, and even though we are all in the choir, it sounded better when it was just her without Leilani and I,” McRae said.