I will never forget that spring afternoon when Francisco took this picture of my daughter Maria Paz, he captured our little angel's personality perfectly. My husband didn’t have any doubt that she would be a winner and convinced me to send this picture to the Great American Photo Contest. So that’s what I did without thinking that a few months later I will receive a call that she won the Grand Prize towards her college education! This is the best prize she could ever win. I can’t believe that at only 3 years old she earned an opportunity to go to college. Thank you Great American!

-- María Agustina

Carrie Wood of Statesboro, Georgia never thought her baby Porter would be bringing home thousands of dollars at such a tender age. But when she entered his photo into the Great American Photo Contest’s Fame and Fortune contest, that is just what happened! This beautiful photo, taken by Porter’s Aunt April on the afternoon of his Christening, was instantly recognized by Porter’s grandfather as a sure winner. As Carrie recalls, “When Porter’s grandfather, Papa Jim, saw this particular photo he sent me the information for the Great American Photo Contest and insisted that I enter Porter’s picture in the contest. I did, with the immediate thought that it wouldn’t win. WOW! I was wrong! The day I received my call from Josh telling me that Porter’s photo had been chosen out of thousands as the Grand Prize winner of the Fame and Fortune contest I was SHOCKED and FLATTERED all at the same time!”

The first time we saw the photo of Addi, that our dear friend Deahna Brockman took, we were completely overwhelmed and captivated by the beauty that she captured. Deahna later told us that she had entered the photo into a contest and of course we were very flattered, but we never thought much more about it. When we got the phone call from Deahna, telling us that Addi's photo was selected as one of 5 finalists for the Fame and Fortune Contest, I was in complete disbelief, and thought she was joking with me. When all of us were on a conference call together to hear that the photo had won I was so overcome with emotion that I started to cry. Thinking how amazing it is that our friend's photo of our beautiful little girl was selected amongst hundreds of entries, and the joy we felt when we were told that she won the Grand Prize towards her college education, left us speechless. We always thought that Addison was a beautiful child, but it was truly an honor to hear that she won a National Contest. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

This winning photo was taken by Audra, a single mother living in Florida, who works full time as a bartender and is also studying full time to become an interior designer and has overcome many challenges in her life. The same can be said for her daughter Laurel, who has overcome a severe injury suffered at day care as an eight month old baby, including a skull fracture and visual impairment that doctors thought she would never recover from. According to her doctors, it is a "miracle" that Laurel is now perfectly healthy. Audra describes her as a "magical child, a very special girl with a sparkle in her eye and incredible charm to match". We couldn't agree more!

“I could not believe it when they called me! Out of thousands of photos, they picked my picture of Autumn. They told me that I won the grand prize, a $25,000 United States Savings Bond. I was so shocked and excited that I got goose bumps. Of course when they asked me if I would use the prize to pay for Autumn’s college when she is ready, I said ‘Absolutely!’ That was exactly what I wanted to do with it.” -- Yolanda H, Hawaii