It was once again my pleasure to fill in for our lovely President Madeleine East at our last meeting. I trust Madeleine is enjoying herself on the Gold Coast.
The turnout of Rotary members was down. I believe in this instance due to illness and injury. We wish you all a speedy recovery.
The lack of members however was increased by visitors associated with the Howick College and the Hanlon speech contestants.
In attendance we also had Michelle and Robbie Innes. Michelle is Brian Hanlon’s daughter and we were honoured to have her there to present the awards.
The speech contest started a week before our dinner meeting to select the final winner. Barry Nicholls, Madeleine and I were at Howick College to judge the pool of seven contestants and to bring this number to three. However, the calibre of contestants was such that four were chosen to participate in the finals.
Barry Nicholls did a sterling job in bringing it all together for the dinner night final. Barry also arranged for the parents of each contestant to be present at the dinner and also representatives from Howick College, Anna Botha and Craig Jack. (Unfortunately, Craig was unable to attend on the night.)
The four students chosen to present on the night were:
Nathan Cox
Stella Donaldson.
Ella Worthington.
Caleb Carr.
There presentations were all outstanding which made the judges job very difficult. The scoring was really close. Unfortunately one student put himself out of contention due to penalty points from going over the time limit quite considerably.
The winner on the night was Stella Donaldson. Her prize being the trophy and a Paper Plus gift voucher. Ella Worthington was runner up with Nathan Cox and Caleb Carr being third equal. All contestants received Paper Plus gift vouchers.
Members and quests all enjoyed the evening and our sincere congratulations to all the participants for the excellent presentations.
It is our pleasure to be associated with Howick College and value our partnership in this speech contest.
Next meeting set down for 22nd November. This is our AGM.
Kind Regards.
Take care and stay safe.
Malcolm J Pascoe.
President Elect.