President of the Grenfell Lions Club, Keith Engelsman welcomed Quest entrants and their families, judges, guests Margaret Carey, Principal of The Henry Lawson High School, Honorary Lion and teacher Matthew Lynch, Lions Ladies/partners and guests to Lions Club Youth of the Year local judging for 2017 which took place on Monday evening November 21. Five very worthy students from THLHS, Jessica Pereira, Paige Hughes, Yongan (Vicki) Xia, Kate Robinson and Caitlin Dixon participated. The five entrants displayed their talents and knowledge before a panel of judges, Jaclyn Hughes representing the National Australia Bank (Grenfell), Lynne Peterson and Maurice Simpson prior to the speeches section of the quest.
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Prior to dinner two two-minute impromptu questions were asked:
1. What is the future of Grenfell?
2. What is the impact of social media on your lives?
The contestants answered these questions with enthusiasm and some interesting and different aspects to the questions were presented. Vicki Xia speech was “Confidence”, Jessica Pereira’s topic was “Rural Schools”, Paige Hughes delivered her speech on “Rethinking Refugees”; Kate Robinson speech was “Community” whilst Caitlin Dixon’s speech was “Resilience”. Spokesperson for the judging panel, Maurice Simpsons said that the judges were astounded by the calibre of all five students! Each of them was so confident and poised and said that it was a hard task to come up with a winner. He emphasised to the audience that out of the 110 points allocated that the public speaking segment which the general public witnessed only accounts for 30% of the marks with the other 80% of marks being allocated from their performance at the private interview and information supplied on their entry forms. Jessica Pereira was announced as winner of the Public Speaking whilst Caitlin Dixon was announced overall winner of the Lions Youth of the Year Quest Local Finals. Caitlin will participate in the Zone finals in 2017 at a venue to be announced with the winner going on the District Finals at Cowra then the State Final which will be held in Forbes and from there if successful to the Multiple District Convention in May 2017 in Hobart, Tasmania where one young finalist will be announced Lions Australia Youth of the Year 2017. Lion Terry Carroll (Chairman of the YOTY Committee) called on Margaret Carey, Principal of THLHS to address the audience. Margaret thanked the Lions Club for hosting the Quest and said that it is a great platform for which thoughts, passions and opinions can be expressed and for the students to gain confidence and that she was very proud of them all. Ms Carey thanked the Lions Club for their outstanding support and their efforts and time supporting the High School Leo Club. Ms Carey also paid tribute to the late Lion Tony Fenech for his support of the Lions Youth of the Year and THLHS over many years. Following the presentations to the students, Lion Terry Carroll thanked Margaret Carey and Matthew Lynch. President Keith Engelsman presented the judges with certificates and an engraved glass depicting the Lions’ emblem for their time and effort with the Quest.
