PEABODY-As they filed into the South Memorial School auditorium for a special ceremony Wednesday, hundreds of students frantically waved their tiny hands as they passed the guest of honor they knew all too well: 12-year-old Jared McCarron.McCarron was being honored for winning a $5,000 Nickelodeon Let?s Just Play Grant that funded two new basketball hoops and a funnel ball for the school?s playground.He entered the contest two years ago when he was a fourth-grader at the South Memorial School.?You had to tell three reasons why you need new equipment,” said the now sixth-grader. He responded with just three simple sentences about the need for new basketball hoops, new footballs, and replacing the old toys kids had to play with.That summer, his parents got the phone call announcing that he won.?I was like, ?Are you kidding me??” said his mother Kelly McCarron. “He deserves it. You never think that it?ll be your own child to win something like this.”His father, Mark McCarron, couldn?t be more proud.?I just think it?s fantastic,” he said. “It just goes to show what happens when you apply yourself.”Unfortunately for Jared, the equipment arrived just in time for the start of this school year – the same year he moved on to the Higgins Middle School.?I like that I won, but I kind of feel bad that I didn?t get to use it,” he said, adding, that he?s still happy other kids at the school and in the neighborhood have something to play with.According to principal Maryellen McGrath, the students “have been playing with it non-stop” ever since they were installed.?Without Jared, we wouldn?t have this new playground equipment in our play yard,” McGrath said to the audience of elementary schoolers sitting patiently on the floor.School Committee members Beverly Ann Griffin Dunne and Ed Nizwantowski, as well as Superintendent Milton Burnett were there to show their appreciation for Jared?s efforts.?This is quite an honor for a student to do this for his classmates,” said Dunne.Nizwantowski, whose wife works as a teacher at the school, congratulated and thanked Jared for his hard work. before cracking a joke to his better half in the audience.?The laundry?s all done and folded,” he laughed. “The dishes are all done, too.”Burnett, a South Memorial School alum, also drew some laughs.?A few years back, I used to be a kid just like you,” he quipped, adding that he?s amazed that out of the millions of entries, his former school was chosen. “All of you are real winners. This gift to you is something you should all be thankful for.”The students presented Jared with a signed basketball and several scrolls filled with their own personal thank-yous. A card, said McGrath, just wouldn?t have fit all of their names.Assistant Principal Judy McNiff thanked Jared?s parents “for providing him with the foundation and the tools to get him to this point.”?He?s a special guy,” McNiff said, noting that the school received this gift because “Jared knew that one person can really make a difference.”