Aucilla students speak during 4-H Tropicana Speech Contest

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Several Aucilla Christian Academy (ACA) students from the fourth, fifth and sixth grade recently took part in and received awards for their public speaking presentations at the school's 4-H Tropicana Speech Contest.
Hosted on Tuesday, Nov. 12 and Wednesday, Nov. 13, the different grade-groups competed within themselves for the chance to compete at the county-wide speech contest that will be held in December.
On Tuesday, Nov. 12, the fourth and fifth graders presented their speech to a panel of judges, with the fifth grade winners being Maggie Walker (first place) Kamrynn Johnson (second place) and Olivia Tharpe (third place). The fourth grade classroom winners were Mae McNeill (first place), Hailey Roland (second place) and Bailey Fletcher (third place).
The following day, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, the sixth graders stood and presented their prepared speeches on the individual topics that interested and encouraged them.
The sixth graders who placed in their classroom's Tropicana Speech Contest were Benjamin Faglie (first place), Leighton Faglie (second place) and GiGi Mediate (third place).
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, several ACA students will return to present their speeches again, this time at the county-level competition.
At the county contest, ACA students will go up against the students of Jefferson Somerset. Whichever student speaker places in the county event will go on to compete at the district contest.
The county-level competition will be hosted at the ACA Auditorium, located at 7803 Aucilla Rd., and is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m.