By LINDA ANN McDONALD
Correspondent
4-H District III Public Speaking Contest was held May 4th at the Wakulla County Extension Office in Crawfordville. Participants in the contest are winners from their respective school located in Leon, Jefferson, Gadsden, Franklin Wakulla, Liberty, and Gulf counties.
Winners from Wakulla include 4/5th grade speaker, Daniel Class, who won an Honorable Mention Award with “Bullying” and 6th grade speaker, Jace Perez, who won second place sharing his “The Time Machine” speech.
Formerly known as the 4-H Tropicana Public Speaking Program, the objectives of the 4-H Public Speaking program, available to all 4th, 5th and 6th grade students, is to recognize the necessity of obtaining as much of the available information on a given topic as possible, carefully organize material to be presented in a timed, orderly and thorough speech, develop a pleasing personal appearance before an audience, acquire the ability to speak convincingly in public, express ideas effectively, and develop confidence and poise.
Overall winners were Kami Poloronis from Franklin County in the 4th/5th grade competition; and Peyton Evans from Leon County in the 6th grade.
Wakulla County Judge Christian Cierzniewski said, “Everyone did absolutely fantastic; it was a close competition. Jace Perez had wonderful creativity and the way he told his story definitely made an impact.”
Marcus Boston, facilitator of the event and leader from Leon County said, “This was the next level competition for the kids and this is a great opportunity for them to enhance their public speaking skills; the competition was close and next level is District.”
All speakers received a 4-H medallion and a certificate of participation, winners won cash prizes.
