Commentary, Opinion

Student speakers wow judges at Tottenham Legion competition

March 2, 2016   ·   0 Comments

The winners included  Samantha Koenig, Evan Vanderroort, and Nicholas Chirrey.

By Wendy Gabrek

 
Students from four local schools faced off at the first level of Legion Youth Speeches competition Feb. 28.
Meeting at the Tottenham Legion Branch #429, nine students representing the primary, junior, and intermediate grade levels, delivered their speeches to a panel of judges, in front of family, friends and teachers.
Subject matter for the speeches, that lasted thee minutes each, ranged from dance, to Down Syndrome, and to why Pluto should be a planet. In the end, the judges had a difficult time deciding the winners, and Legion President Gary Brown, said that in his opinion, just making it this far made all of the contestants winners.
The students’ speeches were fun, creative, original, educational and delivered by dynamic local children.
In the end, the winners were:
• Primary – Samantha Koenig, Grade 3, St. James Catholic School, on “Dance.”
• Junior – Evan Vanderroort, Grade 7, Father F.X. O’Reilly Catholic School, on “Why Pluto Should Be a Planet.”
• Intermediate – Nicholas Chirrey, Grade 7, Father F.X. O’Reilly Catholic School, on “Why Video Games Are Actually Good For You.”
In second and third place were:
• Junior – 2nd Place: Griffin Lowe, Grade 5, Tecumseth South Public School, on “The Berlin Wall.”
Junior – 3rd Place: Courtney Handley, Grade 5, Tottenham Public School, on “Dreams.”
• Intermediate – 2nd Place: Laura Tarable, Grade 8, St. James Catholic School, on “Mental Illness.”
Intermediate – 3rd Place: Emily Burley, Grade 8, Tottenham Public School, on “Easy Ways You Can Change The World.”
The award for “Best Overall Speaker” was presented to Evan Vanderroort. A large-scale plaque will hang at his school, Father F.X. O’Reilly for the next year in recognition of this honour. Evan himself gets to take home a trophy.
The three first-place winners in each category also received engraved plaques to keep, and all of the winners took home a cash prize.
The students will now move on to round two of the competition, facing off against other students from other districts, at the Everett Legion on March 20.


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