4-H Speech Competition

When Caleb was in the 3rd grade his entire grade participated in a speech writing and public speaking competition at school, and then optionally in a competition through the 4-H.  Caleb wrote a great speech on Teddy Rosevelt and delivered it beautifully.  I remember the event with some sourness because when he presented it with his class for some the of preliminary judges from 4-H I had Jonah with me and he was not silent.  But, he was not overly noisy by any means either.  Despite sitting on the floor in the corner in the back of the room to both entertain my 2 year old and listen to my 8 year old I had a pretentious mom come up to me and say that the "parents" in the room wanted me to leave.  I was mortified!  Mortified and embarrassed and totally ticked off at this perfectly manicured and seemingly put together mom!!  So I stepped into the hallway in tears waiting for  Caleb to have his turn so I could sneak back in.  But, then the unfairness turned to a mild sense of payback when Caleb beat out her daughter in the final round of the county 4-H competition 3 nights later.  I never thought going in to that final competition that Caleb would be a finalist until I heard him give his speech compared to the others, then I started to think that he might just win after all!  He too was completely surprised when they called out his name!

Two years later Liam wrote a wonderful speech on Buzz Aldren for the same 3rd grade project.  Liam has long been a fan of the stage and never seems to lack any confidence in delivering speeches, reciting poems, performing musical debuts, or giving Sunday Talks.  In fact, I've been surprised at how much I find that he actually thrives in that environment.  The night of his competition he was stellar and walked away with the second win of the county 4-H competition for the Harris boys.

Fast forward yet another two years to 2013 and here comes Gavin's 3rd grade speech.  Now that both of the other boys had won the county competition, he felt the "pressure" of living up to that legacy.  Interestingly, this gave him a sense of confidence, especially because both Liam and Caleb were great about "coaching" him in preparation.  His chosen famous person was Galileo and his written speech was excellent and his delivery was spot on with clear pronunciation, interesting facts and a flow that you could follow.  In the end it came down to him and one of his friends, George.  Gavin was decked out in his suit which he said was his "secret weapon" and the two boys shook hands and told each other good luck before they delivered their speeches one last time.  Gavin won and the first two things he said were "I'm so relieved and now I feel sorry for Jonah!"

Congratulations Gavin to a job very well done!  I love you!

With Mrs Straume his teacher and fellow finalist George

Award time.