Boy's Twinkie design worth plenty of dough

Donovin Cox, 11, of Tecumseh won a $40,000 college scholarship for his design of the 75th anniversary Twinkies boxes.

TECUMSEH, Mich. - An 11-year-old Michigan boy is $40,000 richer, and more widely traveled, thanks to his winning entry in a contest to design a box for the 75th anniversary edition of the Twinkies pastry.

Donovin Cox has known since Dec. 23 that his entry won.

He, his father, and his sister have twice visited Chicago to see how Twinkies and other Hostess snack cakes are made and meet executives at Twinkies parent Interstate Bakeries Corp.

But Donovin said he had kept the news a secret until Interstate Bakeries announced his victory on Wednesday, the cream-filled sponge cake's 75th birthday.

"If you ever need a secret kept, Donovin's the one to keep it," father Dews Cox said.

Donovin, a fifth-grader at Tecumseh Middle School, received a $40,000 college scholarship, along with having his design on millions of boxes of Twinkies being sold this month.

As a finalist, he received a bicycle and helmet, a T-shirt, a plush toy, and a box of Twinkies.

Donovin's design was one of 10 finalists named last summer by Interstate Bakeries out of 1,300 entries.

Donovin is well aware of what he has won.

"A lot of money," the boy said.

Though he still is about seven years from going to college, Donovin is thinking ahead. He said the design on the box is pretty close to the one he submitted.

"They took my ideas and had a professional rearrange them," he said.

Interstate Bakeries said the finalists were selected based on the appropriateness of the drawing to the theme, originality, creativity, fun, and appeal.