The Jefferson County-Florida 4-H Speech Contest was a success!

Submitted by
UF/IFAS Jefferson County Extension Service

The county level of this year's 4-H Speech Contest has ended. The 4-H Speech Contest, formally known as the Tropicana 4-H Speech Contest, has multiple competition levels: classroom, school, county and district. It is split into two divisions: fourth/fifth grades and sixth grade. The judges decide the winners for the county between the contestants from Jefferson County K-12 (JCS), Aucilla Christian Academy (ACA), and the Jefferson County Homeschool Association, Inc.
As the judges resided in another room to deliberate the results, only one thing was certain and shared by all who had gathered in the Aucilla Christian Academy auditorium on Tuesday evening, Dec. 6. Every single speech of the night had been worthy of an award.
The Jefferson County 4-H Office facilitates the Florida 4-H Public Speaking program. This program is offered to the students of Jefferson County, regardless of whether they attend JCS, ACA or are homeschooled. Each school first holds its own speech contest, and then Jefferson County's program is concluded with a county-wide contest between the respective winners of each school.
This county-wide contest brings together the best local, young public speakers, and regardless of trophies or crystal awards, the night is one in which the voices of the young leaders of the county are listed to be recognized and praised. The county-wide contest was filled with young people speaking before a room filled with adults. Their topics ranged from personal experiences with examples from their school or family lives to their travels and life experiences.
The county-wide contest opened at 6 p.m. with a welcome by ACA Principal Richard Finlayson, followed by instructions and guidelines from John Lilly, Director of the UF/IFAS Jefferson County Extension Service. Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was Gabriella Graff.
Seven fourth/fifth graders and four sixth graders participated in the evening, each presenting an attractive, engaging, humorous or thought-provoking speech for the evening's contest. After each student had a turn to speak, the event's judges, Marilyn Halsey and Carlos Henry, retired to the side room for judges' deliberation.
While every young speaker had provided a memorable speech that was unique or told a story that was engaging and entertaining, only two people are selected from the county contest to compete at the district level. The contestants held their breath in suspense as the judges emerged from deliberation. Each child was called back to the stage and presented with a token of their participation in this year's county-wide speech contest. Then, each grade's first, second and third winners were recognized.
Reign Carrillo won first place in the fourth/fifth-grade division with a speech on "My Journey to America." Macy Morgan won first place in the sixth-grade division with her fascinating speech entitled "My Boston Adventure."
After Graff announced the winners, Lilly provided an encouraging word to all the participants in this year's contest, especially noting his pride in each of them.
While they did not place first, the students who participated in this year's contest were Armani Alexander - "4-H," Harold Baxley - "Cattle Exhibitors," Beau Bethea - "Taking Care of Business: From Graceland to Vegas," Stella Borders - "The Snake Mistake," Walker Pavlik - "Artifacts: A Piece of Long Forgotten Florida," Ja'Varion Ulee - "The Great Komodo Dragon," Molly McNeill - "Shopaholic," Macy Morgan - "My Boston Adventure," Jeremiah Parrish - "Basketball Essay" and Lacy Tharpe - "Running Dogs.”
First place in the fourth/fifth-grade, and sixth-grade divisions will advance to compete at the district level in 2023.
The 4-H District III Florida 4-H Public Speaking Contest will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at the Wakulla County Extension Office in Crawfordville, Fla. The two Jefferson County youth will compete against county winners from Leon, Gadsden, Liberty, Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla Counties.
A special thank you to ACA Principal Richard Finlayson for being a fabulous host; a shout out to Gabriella Graff, who did a phenomenal job as emcee; and appreciation to Florida Power and Light for being the program sponsor.