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Eagle Hill 4-Hers hone speaking skills

Public speaking is a proud 4-H tradition that allows members to share a persuasive, informative or entertaining speech on a topic of their choice, developing self-confidence and communication skills.

Public speaking is a proud 4-H tradition that allows members to share a persuasive, informative or entertaining speech on a topic of their choice, developing self-confidence and communication skills. 4-H clubs across the province will host their own club public speaking days, with the top place speakers having the opportunity to advance on to district, regional and provincial levels of competition.

Throughout the club year, members have many chances to try a little public speaking, whether it’s telling their fellow club members an idea they want to do for fundraising, a club activity idea, volunteer ideas or preparing a speech for club competition.

This year, on Jan. 12, the 34 registered members of Eagle Hills 4-H Club met at the Western Development Museum to participate in a public speaking event. The members are between the ages of six and 21 and are divided into the four age categories. These categories are Cloverbud, junior, intermediate and senior. Based on the age category, each member must prepare a speech on any topic they are interested in, within certain time limits. Each member is judged on presentation, content and writing style with the top two winners from each age category able to compete at the next level.

The speeches this year were amazing, as each member selected a topic that was important to them and they were able to communicate the importance of the topic. It is heartwarming to see the marked improvement for our returning members, including the confidence on stage, the ability to portray the importance of their topic and the amount of practice they put into their speech.

We congratulate the following winners:

Cloverbuds (6-8 years) - Jackson Steiert, Lara Radchenko, Grayson Brown.

Junior (9-12 years) - Lynden Mitchell, Jessica French, Lexi Newman.

Intermediates (13-15 years) - Luc Gratton, Morgan Belleperche, Zaiden Osicki.

Senior (16-21 years) - Samantha Gabruch, Sara Florence, Mickayla Carlson.

We want to thank Andrew Sneddon, Laurie Sneddon, Deborah Jackson and Linda Sheppard for volunteering their time to judge our speeches. Also, thank you to Innovation Credit Union for sponsoring this important 4-H event, which has an influence in our members’ adult life. We want to wish good luck to all our members competing at districts.