March 9 was Highland's 4-H Club Speech Day, and we had 10 members and four judges attend.
The judges this year were Noreen Beer, Jane Skelton, Gloria Melnychuk and Anita Price.
In 4-H, one of the requirements is to present a speech or demo, as well as an impromptu for senior members.
For speeches, you think of a topic and write a three- to five-minute speech for juniors, and five- to seven-minutes speech for seniors. Cloverbuds are expected to present a speech, not mattering about the time, as long as they are up there.
Demos are where two members demonstrate how to do something, in eight to 10 minutes.
Impromptus are when the senior members go out of the room, and someone decides on a topic. One by one, they are called into a different room and given a random topic. They have one minute to think about the topic before going into the main room and speaking about it. This year's impromptu topic was: What is your favourite movie or TV show?
We had one demo and eight speeches presented. A few of our members were away, so they will do their speeches/demos either at the next meeting or at the South End Speeches and Demos at 100 Mile Elementary in April.
We started the night with Hayley Fentiman and Martina Bergen (seniors) with their demo on Spinning Animal Fibres. They had a PowerPoint presentation, and tools to spin fibre. We learned how to spin, and even how to wash your fibre.
We had three seniors give speeches. Topics ranged from The Beatles (Chelsea Cant), Victorian England (Maddy Rutledge) and Sleeping (Zaria Hayes). They all did an excellent job, despite their nerves.
Two juniors gave speeches last night. Avery Rutledge did hers on Global Warming, and Ashley Cant gave hers on Bubblegum.
Our cloverbuds presented their speeches as well. Amy Baechmann did hers on whales; Nelly Baechmann spoke about her rabbit; and Kennedy Kolisnyk did her speech on her sister's chicken.
The results for this year were:
Seniors: first M. Rutledge, second Z. Hayes and third, C. Cant. Juniors: first A. Cant and second A. Rutledge.
Everyone did very well, including the cloverbuds who weren't judged. We learned a lot by listening.
Ashley Cant is the Highland 4-H Club’s reporter.