|
 Farmington, Michigan — The Farmington/Farmington Hills Breakfast Optimist Club announced the winners of the Girls’ and Boys’ Oratorical Contest. Students recited 4-to-5–minute-long speeches that they prepared on the subject “Why My Voice is Important.”
The contest was open to boys and girls in the Farmington and Farmington Hills area who are students in school and not over 18-years-old.
The speech contest is designed to inspire today’s youth to motivate and inform others through the art of public speaking.
Nineteen girls and 17 boys competed in the contests. Each competition (girls and boys) consisted of two preliminary contests with eight to 10 contestants each and final contests with seven finalists from the preliminary contests.
The contests were held on March 20 (girls) and March 27 (boys) at the Jon Grant Community Center and Longacre House.
WINNERS OF THE GIRLS’ CONTEST
• First Place – Veena Thamilselvan, seventh grade, East Middle School
• Second Place – Zahira Nawal (Anna) Malik, sixth grade, Warner Middle School
• Third Place – Easheta Shah, sixth grade, Power Middle School
WINNERS OF THE BOYS’ CONTEST
• First Place – Chintan Maheshwari, seventh grade, Our Lady of Sorrows
• Second Place – Jagjeet Wani, seventh grade, Dunckel Middle School
• Third Place – Connor Rubin, 12th grade, Harrison High School
All winners received a medallion and a monetary award from the Optimist Club: first place - $100, second place - $75, and third place - $50.
The first place winners, Veena Thamilselvan and Chintan Maheshwari, will compete in the Regional Competition, which will be held in Pontiac on Saturday, April 20. |
The Junior Optimist motto is “Kids helping kids”. The first meeting of the Upper Elementary and Middle School Junior Optimist Clubs will take place after school on October 4 at the Costick Center. These clubs give children the opportunity to become active in performing community service. All interested students from Dunckel, East, Power and Warner schools should board the After School Program bus at their school, and go to the Costick Center. Students do not have to be registered with the After School Program to ride the bus and participate in the Junior Optimist Program. The meeting will provide an overview of the program. Junior Optimist Clubs at each school will elect their own leaders, and then select, plan and execute their own service project in support of children in our community. These clubs will meet once each month at their school, in the evenings. There will also be periodic joint meetings of all 11 clubs where they will make presentations about their service projects, and hear from local service organizations. On October 4, the Upper Elementary and Middle School students will see presentations from Sweet DreamzZz, the Farmington Area Goodfellows and Neighborhood House. For more information, contact 
