by Naomi Akkermans
Benalto 4-H Shadow Riders held their public speaking competition at Benalto Agriculture Centre on Feb. 3rd.
It was a day of many interesting speeches and impromptus. All members had to perform a 3-5 or 4-6 minute speech depending on their age. After they completed their prepared speech they had to do a 1-2 minute impromptu speech; that had to be written in under a minute. Speeches and impromptus are judged by three judges per age group.
Members who place first and second go on to the next level to compete again.
Ashley Akkermans placed first in seniors competition while in second place was Taylor Masters, and third place was Alexis Martinson.
Peyton Opshal placed first in the intermediate category, Kaycee Masters was second and Casey Cole was third.
In the junior category Colton Moore was first, Nicole Blair was second and Avery Burgar was third.
Thank you to all the parents and others who helped make the competition a success and congratulations to all members on a job well done. A special thank you to our judges who came out to help us improve our public speaking skills.
The club also did a judged presentations activity for the first time this year. Members who chose to do this instead had to make an 8-10 minute presentation using visuals. They were then asked two questions by the judges. Again thank you to all the judges and good luck to all the members that will be moving on to the next level.