Community & Business
24 February, 2024
Youth speak up
THE region’s best young public speakers have gone head-to-head at their local Lions Clubs recently to claim the Lions Youth of the Year Club Title.
Lions Youth of the Year is an annual speaking contest entered by Grade 11 and 12 school students that helps foster a sense of community and build leadership qualities.
Each entrant must prepare a speech about a topic of their choice and present it to judges for the main event.
Students are also given impromptu questions based on current world and local events and speak on them for three minutes. They also participated in an interview with the judges before the event.
In Mareeba, Ella Daven took home the title for her speech on “Breathing Life Back into Rural Communities”.
Her speech inspired the judges, as well as her confidence and her other academic achievements at school.
Flynn Hyde was the winner of the Malanda competition for his speech, “Overlooking the obscure partake between the two topics of internal combustion and mental health in adolescence”.
In his speech, he spoke about his interest in combustion and how the similarities of it to mental health in teenagers.
He said he was proud to be the winner of the club title and said participating in the competition gave him a huge boost in confidence.
“This comp can really boost confidence with its competitors, and I think it’s really good in terms of future life, such as job interviews,” he said.
In Yungaburra, there were five contestants with the Yungaburra Lioness Lions Club winner being Malanda State High School Year 12 student Mirabella Boglari who will represent Yungaburra in the zone final.
Millaa Millaa Lions Club will have one entrant, Kelly Muller, who will give her prepared and impromptu speeches at their next meeting this Thursday 22 February 2024.
She will automatically go on to the zone final.
Millaa Millaa Lions Youth of the Year chairperson Helen Nash said it is a valuable competition for the club to hold and is of great benefit to participants.
“The Millaa Millaa Lions Club first started holding Lions Youth of the Year competitions in the 70s,” she said.
“They have been held for over 50 years.
“A lot of young people from the Millaa Millaa area have entered throughout the years.”
Atherton will have their club competition this Saturday night and will also host the Zone Final on 9 March, where each club winner will present their speeches again for the title.
