2024 Student Speaker Contest

This year is the 87th annual Student Speakers Contest.

February 15, 2024 was our annual Student Speaker Contest.

The theme this year was: “For a Better World What Would You Change?”

Collectively I feel that this year’s speakers did a really super great job. All U-Prep students.

I hope I spelled their names correctly.

Speaker #1 was Daniel Waldrop, a Junior 17 years old. Plans are to end up in the pharmacy world. He had his speech memorized and blew me away with how he delivered it. He talked about all the forward thinking people of many years ago that believed in what could be and made it happen. My only comment on my notes was WOW.

Speaker #2 was Nathan Hart, just turned 18 years old. Plans are to be a physical therapist. His speech captured the imagination of the world as a patient. And what could improve on the school level for kids. A great perspective of what needs to change.

Speaker #3 was Zoey Taylor, a Junior 17 years old. Not sure what her career will be and is exploring the options available. She talked about making a difference in people’s lives. How just one act of kindness can transform others. And that we can’t fix everything, we can only offer kindness.

The judges vote was for Speaker #3. That surprised me. Not being privy to their criteria for judging, I had to ponder why. Thinking about this for a while I drew from my copywriting classes and had the answer.

My classes talked about “The Story”. People remember the story and that is how you get their attention. Relate a story. Zoey talked about a fellow student and how she interacted with her. The act of kindness she offered a troubled student, one that others shunned and didn’t understand.

And isn’t that what we as Lions embrace? You may never realize that one act of kindness, no matter how small, can change a life around.

This brought me to a conversation I had this past week. I was talking with someone that was a parent of Sycamore students. She has since moved. She always liked Sycamore School. We were talking and she mentioned about kids living out of cars. Then she brought up about one day she went to the school to pick up her son. Wanted to know where his sweatshirt was since he didn’t have it with him. He told her he gave it to a kid. She asked “Why”. His answer was “A boy was cold and he didn’t have any coat.” Even the youngest can be kind. I thought that was so touching.