President Chairman and Youth of the Year Chairman, Lion Terry Carroll of the Grenfell Lions Club, welcomed Quest entrants and their families, judges, Lions, Lions Ladies/partners and guests to Lions Club Youth of the Year Zone judging for 2020 which took place at the Grenfell Bowling Club on Sunday, March 15.
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District Governor of 201N4, Peter Bright his wife Lion Elaine, Vice District Governor Stuart Freudenstein and his wife Lion Lynne were in attendance for this prestigious event on the Lions' calendar.
The Youth of the Year judging took place whilst members from Cowra, Young, Forbes and District, Boorowa and Grenfell attended a Zone meeting.
Four worthy students, Henry Best from The Henry Lawson High School Grenfell, Kate Price from St Raphael's Catholic School Cowra, Bridie Minehan from Harden of Hennessey Catholic College Young and Tomas Boyd from Forbes High School participated in the final.
The four entrants displayed their talents and knowledge before a distinguished panel of judges, Trevor Lobb, former General Manger of Weddin Shire Council, Chris Lobb and Lynne Peterson, Weddin Community Health Services.
Following the Zone meeting, private interviews and lunch where thirty four people were in attendance to hear the outstanding responses to the two two-minute impromptu questions.
- What might be the effects of the coronavirus on your hometown?
- What are your views on the climate change movement symbolised by Greta Thunberg which has resulted in Australian students missing school to demonstrate in support?
Contestants answered these questions with enthusiasm and some very interesting and different aspects were presented.
The students delivered their five-minute prepared speeches.
Henry Best's prepared speech being "Why History?", Tomas Boyd delivered his speech "Learning to play a musical instrument"; Bridie Minehan's speech was "Arts", whilst Kate Price's was "What is the meaning of success?"
Spokesperson for the judging panel, Trevor Lobb said that the judges were astounded by the calibre of all four students, at this level of the competition this is what we would expect - he said that it was a very difficult decision.
He emphasised to the audience that the public speaking segment, which the general public witnessed, only accounts for 30 points of the marks with the other 70 points being allocated from their performance at the private interview and information supplied on their entry forms.
Bridie Minehan was announced as Public Speaking winner, as well as overall winner of the Lions Youth of the Year Zone Final.
Bridie will participate in the District finals at Bathurst on Saturday, March 28 with the winner going on to the State Final in Wollongong on April 18 and from there, if successful, to the Multiple District Convention in Adelaide on May 18 where one young finalist will be announced Lions Australia Youth of the Year 2020.
Sponsored by the National Australia Bank, the quest is a community project that aims to assist secondary students in developing leadership and other citizenship qualities.
Trevor presented Bridie with her Public Speaking and Overall Winning Certificates, to which she suitably responded, thanking everyone involved in the quest.
Lion Terry Carroll (Chairman of the Youth of the Year Quest) thanked all for attending and congratulated all the students on the achievements; he called District Governor, Peter Bright to present Participant's Certificates to the four students.
He thanked the Grenfell Lions Club for hosting the quest and said that it is a great platform for which thoughts, passions and opinions can be expressed and for the students to gain confidence and that he was very proud of them all.
Following the presentations to the students, Terry thanked the judges and called on Zone Chairman Ian Acret to present them with a gift and certificates of appreciation. He also thanked the timekeepers Lain Thiel and Deidre Carroll and the Manager and staff at the Bowling Club for providing the venue, a beautiful meal and their assistance on the day.