Young Brackers hone oratory skills

(CNS): Joel Gayle and Abijith Anu won the top spots, in the high school and primary school divisions respectively, in the Claudette Upton Keeley’s Public Speaking Contest on Monday, 22 November, and Wednesday, 24 November. Both students walked away with the coveted IPAD with 16 GB of memory. Cassidy Connor took second and Kassandra McDowell took third place in the primary school division, while second and third place in the high school division went to Logan Keyser and Venkata Bata respectively. The contest was hosted by the Lions Club of Cayman Brac in collaboration with Cayman First Insurance Company Ltd. and Brac Insurance Associates Ltd.

Itis one of the club’s many youth projects aimed at developing the art of speaking, writing and research amongst our youths, a release from the Brac Lions Club said.

“Public speaking is a very important skill in most professions or careers and provides an advantage when it is properly done,” Lion Kevin Roberts said. “The club wants to help the young people of Cayman Brac to build confidence in speaking to groups of people and develop the necessary skills involved in research and writing as early as possible. As these young people conduct their research, write a summary of their findings and present them, it is also expected that they will widen their knowledge on many relevant issues.”

This is the second year of the contest and it is once again well supported by parents, friends and school leaders. Roberts maintained that the young orators delivered speeches of the highest quality and answered the questions posed in a professional and thorough manner.

“We were all impressed. The judges had the difficult task of determining the winners of the very attractive, up-to-date technological prizes. Prizes included Ipads, Ipods and Nintendo Wii. The club is already looking forward to next year’s contest as it hopes to expand it further into the school system, incorporating the senior high school students,” Roberts stated.