2018 Youth of the Year Quest
Zone Chairperson and Youth of the Year Chairperson, Lion Terry Carroll of the Grenfell Lions Club, welcomed Quest entrants and their families, judges, Lions, Lions Ladies/partners and guests to Lions Club Youth of the Year local judging for 2019 which took place on Monday afternoon/evening December 03, 2018 at Unwind Cafe in Grenfell.
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Past District Governor of 201N4, Lion John Skelton his wife, Lions Lady Diane, Sarah Higgs, Youth of the Year Co-ordinator and teacher at The Henry Lawson High School and special guest Lions Lady Edith Taylor were in attendance for this most prestigious event on the Lions calendar.
Apologies were received from a number of Lions owing to other commitments.
Four very worthy students; School Captains Connor Day and Bridget Baker and Vice Captains Marie Knight and Ethan Reid from The Henry Lawson High School displayed their talents and knowledge before a distinguished panel of judges, Ngaire Soley and Trevor and Chris Lobb.
Following the private interviews and prior to dinner the entrants addressed the 2 X 2 minute impromptu questions.
1. Last week thousands of school students in Melbourne and Sydney walked out of school to protest against inaction with climate change. What is your opinion of the issues and of student involvement?
2. What course would you like to see at the new Grenfell TAFE?
Interesting and different aspects to the questions were presented.
Youth of the Year Chairperson Lion Terry Carroll emphasised to the audience that the public speaking segment which the general public witnessed only accounts for 30 of the marks with the other 70 marks being allocated from their performance at the private interview and information supplied on their entry forms.
Following dinner, the students delivered their 5 minute prepared speeches.
Bridget Baker’s topic was “Benefits of living in the country”, Marie Knight delivered her speech “Why do we read?”, Ethan Reid’s speech was “ What I think about life” whilst Connor Day spoke on “Leadership.”
Spokesperson for the judging panel, Trevor Lobb said that he was astounded by the calibre of all four students and said that it was a very difficult decision.
Connor Day was announced overall winner of the Lions Youth of the Year as well as the Public Speaking segment.
Trevor presented Connor with his Winners Certificates. Connor was also the recipient of a $100 voucher to assist with his travel to the next level.
Connor will participate in the Zone finals at a date and venue to be decided in the New Year.
If successful at Zone level, Connor will go onto the District Final, which will be followed by the State Final where one student will go on to represent NSW at the National Finals at the Lions MD Convention in Geelong in early May 2019.
Sponsored by the National Australia Bank, the Quest is a community project that aims to assist secondary students in developing leadership and other citizenship qualities.
It is designed to encourage student interest in the qualities required to take an active and constructive role in the community.
A high level of academic, leadership, sporting, public speaking and citizenship achievement is sought in its potential winners.
By emphasising these qualities it hopes to provide outstanding role models for the youth of Australia and an overall increase in the confidence of young men and women.
The qualities sought, apart from academic attainments are those of leadership, personality, sportsmanship, public speaking and good citizenship.
Whilst the judges were finalising the results, Lion Terry Carroll called on Lions President Chris Moran to present the Participants Certificates and a Grenfell Lions Club banner to the four students and a School Participant Certificate and banner to Sarah Higgs for THLHS.
Lion Chris thanked all for attending and congratulated all the students on their achievements.
Lion Terry said the Quest is a great platform for which thoughts, passions and opinions can be expressed and for the students to gain confidence and that he was very proud of them all.
He thanked the judges and presented them with certificates of appreciation and a small gift.
Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the timekeepers Lions Lady Lain Thiel and Lion Deidre Carroll.