Lions host public speaking contest

The Peterborough Lions held the annual Effective Speaking contest Feb. 24, bringing out the best in public speaking for students. The event attracted students from public and separate schools, as well as home-schooled students. Participants who earned the top three spots in junior, intermediate and senior divisions will move on to the district competition being held Mar. 24 at the Peterborough Lions Centre. Here’s a look at the winners in all divisions. • Youth English: first, Royce Carlton; second, Benjamin Kingston and third, Sarah Black. • Junior English: first, Olivia Winn; second, Eva Winn; third, Gabe Belgrave. • Junior French: first, Ava Feige; second, Shanti Vaillancourt; third Joseph Fayek. • Intermediate and Senior English: Atticus Belgrave, Shaun Plassery, Ohruv Patek and Niru Namulla. • Senior French: first, Elyse Rahiri; second, Emmanuel Barrie and third, Emily Toupin. Student Olivia Winn, 11, entered because of the experience. “It’s a good way to work on self-confidence and work on speeches,” she said. She chose sleep as her topic and spent about a month preparing it. “Sleep is an interesting topic and most people have sleep problems one way or another,” she said. Winn has entered this contest before and is nervous and excited about moving forward to the district contest again. “I went to the provincial contest in 2016. It was really cool,” she reveals. Her sister, Eva Winn, nine, entered the contest as a fun way to learn and boost confidence. Her chosen topic was manners. “Not too many people know a lot about manners,” she said. There was a lighter side to her presentation, but her goal was to inform. “There was a lot of information about manners,” said Eva. While most spent about a month working on speeches, Gabe Belgrave, 10, spent months crafting his speech. “I started in September,” he said. He selected time as the topic for his speech. “Time relates to everyone. You need to be careful about time and you can’t go back,” he said. Belgrave and his brother, Atticus, are home schooled. “It’s a great opportunity for them to get out into the community with other children and prepare their speeches,” said mom Carrie Belgrave. Both Gabe and Atticus started working on their speeches shortly after school started last year, spending about an hour a day researching, writing, practicing and polishing their presentations. “Because they are homeschooled, we were closely involved in each stage,” she said. She also formed a group of home school students and the kids practiced their speeches with each other as a practice run for all. Winners are nervous and excited to enter the next round and will have a few weeks to tinker with their speeches. Now that they have some experience under their belts, contestants are ramping up their speeches for the district contest. “I’m ready for the next level,” said Eva Winn. Parents like Carrie Belgrave know the value of public speaking contests. “We are totally proponents of this. We so appreciate the Lions doing this,” she said.