A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to judge the Tropicana Speech Contest at Gulf Breeze Elementary School. I was blown away.

Not only did the well-composed content of the speeches wow me, the boldness of these young children amazed me. They marched up on stage, and with varying degrees of expertise and skill delivered their speeches. Without a doubt, some of the students performed their verbal essays with greater delivery and composure, but each participant truly deserved a standing ovation.

And the amazing thing is that they received one. Not only from the gathering of parents and grandparents, above and beyond the praise of their classmates assembled to witness the competition, the students vying for the top honor received cheers and encouragement from each other.

The Tropicana Speech contest winners receive a good amount of attention in class and on Instructional TV, and even go on to compete on the county level. So this is a high visibility honor at stake. Instead of looking over their own notes again and again to be at their personal best, these students made eye contact with each speaker, cheered them, hugged and cheered them when they returned to the cluster of competitors. When the finalists and winners were announced, the group of competitors jumped and cheered for one another, truly excited for each other's success.

Of all the talents featured that day, I hope these students will retain the skills of encouragement and mutual support. It's great to win the top spot in any competition. It's even better to get there with the praise and support of your team. There were no losers at GBES that morning.