District 5170 Youth Speech Contest

Greetings and welcome to the Richard D. King Annual Youth Speech Contest for 2023.

 

My name is Debi Pavlecic-Bischoff from the Niles Fremont Club, and I am returning to serve as the District 5170 Speech Contest Chair for a second year. I am pleased to have the assistance of Mark Linsky from the Pleasanton North Club again this year. Last year was a new journey for both of us, and one that we were excited to take on to provide our Clubs and youth a quality speech contest experience. We worked hard, learned a lot and are proud of the success.

 

Last year’s contest which started in February produced four impressive finalists who competed for top honors at the District 5170 Conference on April 24. It was a hard job for our judges and the scores were very close. I’m glad that I wasn’t judging!

 

One of our goals was to increase the prize money at the Area and District level. We were able to do that by developing a program that allowed businesses to help sponsor the Area and District Contest, and have their business showcased in the program that was given to all in attendance. In addition, it provided space for all attendees to play “judge” along with the judges. We are pleased to report that our efforts and our sponsors' generous contributions allowed us to double the prize money. We are looking to increase it again this year.

 

But, our #1 goal is to get as many clubs and students as possible to participate in the contest.

 

How can we do this? By providing YOU with the tools and support you need to plan and run a smooth and successful speech contest. (CLICK HERE to provide your Club’s Youth Speech Contest contact info.)

 

To do this effectively, we are looking to build a team of Rotarians equally committed to assisting our youth to share the many areas and tasks needed to produce a successful Speech Contest.

If you are interested or would like to find out more, you can contact us at: district5170speechcontest@gmail.com.

 

As always, you can also share any suggestions or ideas you may have to help improve the contest.

 

This year’s Speech Contest Finals is scheduled for April 29 at the District 5170 Conference. The theme is “Imagine Rotary.”

 

The full list of contest dates and the Handbook have been updated and posted. Please notice, in the calendar, that the timeframes have been slightly changed. To give the clubs more time to plan and run their contests, we have delayed the start of the Area contests by about 4 weeks. All of the remaining information on the DYSC website should be updated by the end of September.

 

Mark and I both look forward to working with you all.

 

District 5170 Speech Contest Chair, 2022-23

Niles (Fremont) Rotary Club