WEST NEWBURY — "My dad deserves more than a day of recognition," said Dan Dicamella, a sentiment every fifth-grader talked about at Friday's Fifth-Grade Appreciation Day at the Page School.

Organized by fifth-grade teacher Geraldine Carter, the event has all 64 fifth-graders give a short speech about someone they appreciate in their lives. The event, now in its 20th year, tries to make students mindful of the people who help them in their lives.

As part of Pentucket's new Habits of Learning program, the event also teaches communication skills and concepts.

There were more than two weeks of preparation for the event. Students start by learning about character traits and biographies. Next, everyone chooses a person important to them and invites them to the event. The students then brainstorm character traits and stories about their important person, write all of that into a speech, revise and rewrite, and then commit it to memory.

They also type the speech on the computer and design a display version of the speech in Microsoft Publisher, complete with graphics and color that shows their relationships, which are then given to the person they appreciate as a kind of award.

Many students had invited one of their parents, and all of them had good things to say. Sam Brennan invited his mother: "(She's) a good cook, and I love it when she makes homemade pizza."

Morgan Capener gave a speech for his father, Andy, who took him everywhere, from skiing at Mt. Sunapee to a nearby movie theater.

Lily Griffin called her mother, who was a former vice principal, "an inspiration," who was respectful to everyone she met.

Mackenzie Salt also invited her mom, saying, "She's always has a lot of confidence in me."

But it wasn't just parents the students picked, but also relatives, friends, neighbors and teachers. Paige and Amber Alcon invited their friends Virginia and Annette, whom they met when they moved into town five years ago.

Christine Dodge invited her nanny, who took her on little trips to Newburyport and bookstores when she was young.

Emily Harde invited her grandmother Ellen, or "Grandmellen," whom she visited to play outdoors, throwing water balloons off the balcony or riding the zipline behind the house.

More than that, though, everyone had a story about something special they wanted to thank them for. Ben Thibeau told how his father got him to settle arguments with his brother by flipping coins.

Thatcher Phillips told about the trips his mom took him on to visit family members in Canada.

Kaleb Summerton talked about snowboarding with his mother and after his basketball games, having a race back to the car.

Tyler Van Etten thanked his drum teacher, Zach Fields, who took him on as a student: "He had no slots left, but he decided to teach me anyway."

Together, the students also sang a song for everyone, "You Are Our Heroes," and at the end, there was a speech and bouquet of flowers for Patti Marsh, one of the fifth-grade teachers, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Carter was enthusiastic about how well the event had turned out. She feels it's an important time in their lives. "Beyond fifth grade, you can't really do (this kind of event), because they're still innocent." At the same time, the kids know they're not the most important person in the world now, she added.

The students, too, talked about how much fun they had. Though, as one student pointed out, even though he really appreciated everyone, he was also glad to get out of math class that day, too.