Recent History – 1999
April 6, 1999
By Patsy Nagel, Contributing writer
In public speaking competitions, everyone who gets up and speaks is a winner! The 4-H clubs have a very good program which encourages members to make a speech at the club level each year. Winners are then urged to go on to the next level, which is usually the district. From there they go on to regional competition and this allows just one member to compete in the provincial finals. This is a real honour.
The South Peace 4-H District have held their finals for this year. All clubs did not send speakers, as this year some have chosen to do demonstrations instead. The clubs are each allowed to send two senior, two junior, and two pre-club speakers. They were encouraged to speak on farm safety but could choose other topics if they wished.
A panel of three judges mark the juniors while another three judge the senior members. Judges for this year were, for the juniors: Joe Judge, Dave Owens, and Mr. Bob Broadley. For the seniors, Dick Sequens, Bev Dunsmuir, and Mrs. Bumstead did the marking.
Boundary 4-H Community Club hosted the speakoffs at the Kiwanis Performing Arts Center.
Winners in the senior age group were:
First Kristy Rose, Pioneer Beef 4-H Club, second, Nikki Sutherland of the same club, and third, Brett Madden from the Devereaux Beef Club.
In the junior division, first place went to Blair Morrone, Pioneer Beef, and second to Jason Hogberg, also pioneer Beef.
The pre club winner was Annette Hogberg of Pioneer Beef.
When the two top place winners competed at the regional level in the Grandhaven Hall, they were hosted by the Blazing Saddles and Wonowon Community Clubs in the North Peace. A different set of judges were used. The juniors were judged by Mrs. C. Germain, Mrs. S. Cushway, and Mr. M Tucker. The senior judges were, Mr. S Petrucci, Mrs. R Darnell, and Ms. J. Richer.
First place in the seniors went to Nikki Sutherland , Pioneer Beef, second to Kristy Rose, Pioneer Beef, and third to Pam Miedema, Blazing Saddles.
In the junior competition, first place went to Nicole Rubin, Silver Willow Beef and second to Kailey Snyder, Blazing Saddles.
Nikki Sutherland will represent the Peace River 4-H Region in the Provincial Finals. Good luck, Nikki, and congratulations to all the other winners in the 4-H public speaking competitions. Yes, you are all winners if you gave a speech.
It’s not only the 4-H clubs who think that learning to speak in public is a very good accomplishment. The schools in the Rycroft, Spirit River areas also think that public speaking is important. All grades starting at grade one get practice in standing in front of an audience to give a talk.
The grade one, two and three pupils recite poems. Beginning in grade four they give a prepared speech. Bonanza School had their final judging recently and I was able to attend and enjoy the great presentations. Three pupils from each grade took part and the top one will go on to Rycroft to compete with winners from all area schools.
The speeches were very interesting and of a wide variety in topics, which ranged from entertaining talks on GENTLEMEN? or the Advantages of Being Short, to informative talks on such subjects as drugs, suicide or useless facts. Other Grade six students gave their persuasive talks about Fords being better than GMC’s or which are the best animals to raise, cows or horses? Other interesting topics were figure skating, pets, and sisters.
The grade seven and eight students were also required to recite a poem, which could be funny or even tear jerking. I was very impressed with the entire program. A grade seven student, Anthony Broadway, acted as MC, adjusting the mike for the different height of student.
Judges for this day were, Iris Thill, Roger Ryan and Bob Sandford. Their comments were very encouraging. They felt that all were winners and that each topic had been well chosen and worth thinking about.
Those chosen to go on to the next level by grade were: Grade one, Shane Babitsch; two, Amy Titford; three, Tyler Roberts; four, Elliot Holt; five, Brandon Giesbrecht; six, Derek Giesbrecht; seven, Colleen Gouche; and eight, Nicole Giesbrecht.
Good luck to all of you in the next level of competition.
And again, Congratulations to all speakers.