No fat in speeches

bofa032: No fat in speechesWhen 35 elementary grade students were asked to deliver a speech on “The Importance of Nutrition and Physical Activity Habits in Childhood and Adolescence,” they knew the content would have to be lean. The rules for the May 8 Bank of America Essay/Speech contest were specific. Each oratory could be no longer than five minutes.

The annual event, co-sponsored by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, had 600 fourth, fifth and sixth-graders from Kern County schools involved in writing essays on the nutritional topic in January. From the submitted essays, each school nominated one student’s paper at the three grade levels for the final judging. The top 35 finalists were invited to compete in grade level in the speech portion of the contest held at University Square.

Fifth grade winner Justin Roney from Juliet Thorner School had a speech that was a mixture of statistics and quotes heavily sprinkled with personal experience and anecdotes. While acknowledging the importance of a good diet and exercise, Roney also took the opportunity to inject a little humor which drew laughter from the audience.

“I’ve never had three servings of vegetables in one day,” said Roney. “I know I should, but I can’t. I don’t like vegetables.” Roney also touched on statistics correlating success in academics with physical fitness. “Maybe if we had more physical education and recess time our test scores would go up,” Roney said with a smile.

Actually, he was merely following the rules of the contest which ask each contestant to “use your own knowledge and experiences and the information that you find in your investigation. Expository essays/speeches are meant to inform the audience about the writer’s understanding of the topic based on his/her experience and the research he/she has done.”

Winning sixth-grader Hannah Warren, from Christa McAuliffe School, had heads nodding in agreement when she told the audience, “There are not good and bad foods but good and bad eating habits.”

The youngest winner, Endeavor Elementary fourth-grader Sarah Moore admitted she had done a little soul searching while writing her essay. “I think it would be nice to eat sugary, junk food whenever I want, but I wonder what I’d look like and how healthy I would be,” Moore said. And she left the judges and audience pondering a piece of advice. “There is no guarantee that we will eat healthy foods every meal, but it is important to establish healthy eating habits for the rest of our lives,” Moore added.

All of the winners received trophies and $100 savings bonds from the Bank of America’s South Sierra Valley Region. Second place finalists included Reagan School fourth-grader Nicholas Ahn, Endeavour Elementary fifth-grader Kyle Adams and Endeavour Elementary sixth-grader Marissa Wagner who each received $75 savings bonds. For finishing third, Thorner School fourth-grader Jonathan “Gage” Marchini, Berkshire Elementary fifth-grader Hayward Adam Cox and Kernville Elementary sixth-grader Chris Woodward received $50 savings bonds.

It was a night for each to build on for future endeavors into public speaking. As emcee Teresa Irvin, English/language arts coordinator told the student speakers and parents, “This event brings to a close the language arts competition season. It is the last of the school year.”
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