Released by the Holmes County Extension Office …
1st Place – Fisher Weimorts, Ponce de Leon Elementary School, with his speech entitled, “Bigfoot”
2nd Place – Paisley Stafford, Bonifay K-8 School, with her speech entitled, “Honoring Veterans”
3rd Place – Emma Richbourg, Bethlehem School, with her speech entitled, “Being a Pastor”
Honorable Mention – McKenzie Baxter, Poplar Springs School, with her speech entitled, “The VF Outlet”
The 4-H/Tropicana Public Speaking Contest is an annual competition that allows youth in grades 4-6, in all Holmes County schools to write and deliver a speech to be presented before their peers.
It is a school and 4-H traditional that Holmes County has been participating in for well over fifty years. Teachers and parents work hard to prepare students for this annual competition and we appreciate their hard work and dedication.Judges for this year’s County 4-H/Tropicana Public Speaking Competition found themselves in a difficult situation as they had to determine an order of winners after twelve youth competitors took the podium on December 17, 2019 for the 2019 Holmes County 4-H/Tropicana County Level Public Speaking Competition. The twelve youth showed precision in their speaking delivery as they delivered exceptionally written speeches with confidence and enthusiasm. One judge told the Holmes County 4-H Agent, Niki Crawson, “These students delivered their speeches so professionally, it was enjoyable to sit and listen. They did an exceptional job of creating the images and emotions they wanted their speeches to invoke.”
These twelve students were the finalists in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, representing a total of 697 students that participated in the 2019 Holmes County 4-H/Tropicana County Level Public Speaking Competition from five schools in the Holmes County School District. Judges scored the youth on their speech delivery as well as speech composition and creativity.
Over 2 million students have participated in this program since its beginning. Tropicana, Inc. has graciously sponsored the contest since 1969 and provides classroom materials for teachers, certificates of participation, ribbons for classroom winners, and medallions for school winners, plaques and 4-H summer camp scholarships to for county winners. Tropicana Products, Inc., is a division of PepsiCo, Inc., the leading producer and marketer of branded fruit juices.
Congratulations to all of this year’s County 4-H/Tropicana Winners.