Hobbs, MacDonald win Oratorical awards

Shelby Hobbs and Jonathan MacDonald won the top awards at the annual Gulf Breeze Optimists' Club oratorical contest held Feb. 22 at the Gulf Breeze Middle School library. This year's topic is "My Biggest Challenge Is …"

All contestants prepared a four to five minute speech about their future and presented it to a panel of judges who evaluated each speaker on poise, speech content, delivery and presentation and overall effectiveness.

From those speakers, six girls and six boys were chosen as finalists, 11 of which competed on Thursday night. Shelby's speech focused on finding the perfect shoe/perfect friend to comfort and support us in life, while Jonathan's speech focused on knowing one's limitations and working towards reasonable, attainable goals.

Second place finishers were Haley Bookout, for the girls, and Nathan Gupta for the boys. Third place awards went to Julianne Lewis and Daniel Jacobi. Shelby and Jonathan will compete at the zone contest to be held in April. Zone winners compete at a district level competition where winners receive $1500 college scholarships.

The speech contest is designed to inspire today's youth and inform others through the art of public speaking. It provides young people with the opportunity to compete for a college scholarship and express their views on a pre-assigned topic. The Optimists' Oratorical contest is just one of many events sponsored by the Optimist Club to support and promote student achievement. For more information about the Optimists' Club, go to www.optimist.org.