Over 1,500 Youth Participate in County 4-H Public Speaking Contest

Escambia County 4-H hosted the Tropicana Public Speaking Contest last week and saw a total of 1,500 participants from fourth through sixth grade classes in Escambia County. 

Individual schools held contests, with the individual school winners going on to compete in the county-wide competition on Friday, Jan. 23 at the Langley Bell 4-H Center in Cantonment.

Contestant	Grade Division	School	Speech Title	County Contest Award
Aubrey McMillion	4th/5th	Pensacola Beach Elementary School	“The move from Maryland”	1st Place
Ryan King	4th/5th	R.C. Lipscomb Elementary School	“How I became a shark defender”	2nd Place
Erin Reilly	4th/5th	Creative Learning Academy	“The positive effects of drawing”	3rd Place
Maggie Nutter	4th/5th	Aletheia Christian Academy	“Having a sister with autism”	Honorable Mention
Landon Hommerbocker	4th/5th	Jim Allen Elementary School	“I want to be a Marine”	-
Ashanti McPherson	4th/5th	Montclair Elementary School	“Gladiator”	-
Lyra Wilkinson	4th/5th	McArthur Elementary School	“Bus safety”	-
Sophia Worley	4th/5th	N.B. Cook Elementary School	“The danger of smoking”	-
Emma Ward	6th	Aletheia Christian Academy	“My family”	1st Place
Charlotte Wymant	6th	Creative Learning Academy	“Why we should be driving electric cars”	2nd Place
Tucker Padgett	6th	Homeschool	“Acorn to oak”	3rd Place
Maegan Coleman	6th	Ransom Middle School	“Camp Crestridge”	Honorable Mention

Judges for the county contest included Ariel Blanton, Rachel Boswell, Sydney English, Laura Lawhon, Josh McLamb and Lesa Morgan. Students were judged at the classroom, school and county level on both composition and presentation of their speeches. Winners were awarded plaques for their hard work and diligence.

The Florida 4-H/Tropicana Public Speaking Contest helps children build self-esteem and gain valuable communication skills while learning lessons on how to select a speech topic, writing and presenting in front of a group.  

The program is administered through the University of Florida IFAS Extension 4-H Youth Development program, with material provided by the Tropicana Corporation and in partnership with local schools and teachers. Additionally, the program meets Sunshine State standards and helps students acquire required benchmarks that are assessed by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Tropicana has sponsored the contest since 1969 and provides classroom materials for teachers, certificates of participation, ribbons, medallions for school winners, and trophies for county winners, summer camp scholarships and Tropicana refreshments for county contests. More than a million students have participated in this program since its inception.