Submitted by Teri Ormberg
The Crestomere School has been the scene of two public speaking competitions in March.
On March 9 the Ponoka 4-H District competition was held with members from Winfield to Mecca Glen and all points in between. The winners were as follows: Juniors – 1st Savannah Slater of Central Ponoka Beef, 2nd Lindsey Gartner of West Ponoka Beef, 3rd Alexandra Bolton from East Ponoka Beef and Ben Trenson of Bluffton Beef was 4th. Intermediates saw Jessica Sperber in 1st from West Ponoka Beef, Jessica Trautman 2nd from Rimbey 4-H, Gerald Schenk 3rd from Winfield Beef and Holly Osmond 4th from Renegade Riders. For Seniors- Amy Mayner of Bluffton Beef was 1st, Samantha Sperber of West Ponoka Beef 2nd, Alana Eastcott of Renegade Riders in 3rd and in 4th was Monica Trautman of Rimbey 4-H. Judges for this competition were Kathleen Beagle, Tannielle Gilchrist, Angel Kleiter, Wally Wilson, Russ Finlay, Linda Davies, Fred Hiebert, Cindy Hudson and Carlie Eckare.
Awards were given by Ponoka Toastmasters, Ponoka Ag Society, Alberta Financial Services Corp., Buck Mountain Plumbing, Ogilvie Quarter Horse, Loyal Order of the Moose and Lorenz and Ethel Jensen Memorial Scholarship. Other financial support was from Alta Link and the Ponoka District 4-H Council. This is the last competition of the year for the junior members. Congratulations to all speakers who participated.
March 16 was the West Central Regional competition for Intermediates (12-14 year olds) with members from the districts of Camrose, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Lacombe, Rocky and Red Deer. At this competition the 1st place winner was Jessica Sperber of West Ponoka Beef, 2nd place went to Jennalee Blackhurst of Gilby Beef Club, 3rd was Breanne Pfeil of Thundering Hoofbeats and in 4th place was Chelsey Brown of Lacombe 4-H Outsiders. Thank you to the judges for this competition: Brian Kriz, Lisa French-Scott, Kathleen MacAulay, Monica Harvey, Dorothy Ungstad and Kathy Krause. West Central Regional 4-H Council and Alta Link provided the prizes and financial support. This is the last competition for the intermediate members who did a spectacular job.
Seniors Amy Mayner and Samantha Sperber, competed at the West Central Regional Senior competition in Gilby on March 15th but did not go on to the Provincial Competition. Samantha Sperber did place 4th. Congratulations to these great speakers as well.
4-H would like to thank all the speakers, judges, timers, tellers, MC’s and organizing committees for making 4-H public speaking a success.