This Mother’s Day, Gallery of Diamonds, Costa Mesa, Calif., will once again award a .25-ct. princess-cut diamond (valued at $500) to two Orange County, Calif., students and one national winner of an essay contest, “Why Mom Deserves a Diamond.”

Company president Michael Watson launched the competition in 1993 to honor his birth mother and adoptive mother. Since then, more than 100,000 children have entered the contest with essays honoring their mothers. Information on the contest and past diamond winners can be found at the company’s Web site, www.galleryofdiamonds.com.