Durant Illusions Gallery of Artists: North Okanagan-Shuswawp School District #83 Zone Finals Public Speaking Competition

Public speaking is challenging, it takes courage to get up in front of a group of people and speak. That is just what 8 students from Grindrod, Ashton Creek, Parkview and Carlin schools did today May14th at Grindrod Elementary. They were in the North Okanagan-Shuswap School District #83 Zone finals Public Speaking Competition. Grade 7 speakers Arusha Bruns of Grindrod, her speech title “High School”, Arulia Puchinger of Ashton Creek her speech title “The Mayan Calender and the End of the World”, Liam Sutherland of Parkview his title “Bacon”. Liam was the winner in the grade 7 speakers. His speech was as humorous as he was serious in his presentation of how much and how many kinds of bacon that he loved. Is there really such a thing as squeezable bacon? Liam was easy to hear and he didn't use notes.

In the Grade 6 speakers we had Kyona Bruns of Grindrod her title was “The Vancouver Canucks”, Maia Charleston of Parkview her title “Laughing” and Brandon Gosselin of Ashton Creek his title “Hobbies”. The winner in the grade 6 category is Kyona Bruns. Kyona started out her speech as if she were interviewing Don Cherry with wishful thinking. She had a lot of interesting facts and I think her dream job will someday be a hockey announcer, like Don Cherry. Kyona has a clear voice with good modulation.

The Grade 5 speakers were Taryn Bottcher of Carlin her speech title was “Bullying”, Trinity Marshall of Ashton Creek with her title being “Dirt Biking”. The winner in the grade 5 is Trinity Marshall. The judges had a very difficult choice in the grade 5 outcome, they were just a few points apart. Taryn had an important message on Bullying and how to deal with it. Trinity talked about something she loved, a sport that is dominantly male.

I wish the best to all these kids.