Best speakers to vie for title

THE best public speakers from around Victoria will be coming together at Legacy House this September for the state final of the Legacy Junior Public Speaking Competition.

This is the second stage of the competition with regional finals held earlier this year, and the winners from this stage to progress to the national final in Adelaide.

The competition is designed for students aged 12 to 14 and participants must prepare a five-minute speech also give a two-minute impromptu speech.

Earlier this year it was announced that Melbourne Legacy had withdrawn from the competition due to other priorities which is why the state final is being held in Ballarat for the first time.

“Since Melbourne Legacy decided not to run the competition anymore, we’ve cut out what was effectively a semi-final round and we just have our regionals and we go straight into the state final,” said organiser Allan McKinnon.

This year state final participants come from the areas in and around Ballarat, Ararat and Hamilton with other regional centres like Warrnambool, Geelong, Bendigo and the Wimmera unable to get a competition running.

The top nine students from these regional rounds well be competing in the final.

“Hamilton had about 17 students compete, we had 16 students compete and Ararat had about nine students compete,” said Mr McKinnon.

Mr McKinnon said one of the reasons he believes Ballarat has been able to attract so many participants is the strong culture of public speaking.

“Ballarat is very blessed because we’ve got South Street and we dovetail into South Street and South Street dovetails into us,” he said.

“We are a really good beginning segway into South Street because we only go from 12 to 14 year olds and they go on to do very well in South Street.

The support from local schools has also been crucial to the competition’s success.

“It was a challenge, but I get a lot of support,” said Ms McKinnon. “The teachers in the schools have been good and made sure the students get their entries in.”

The competition will provide an opportunity for students to speak to large audiences and develop their skills.

“The state final winner next week, providing their speech is appropriate they will get to present their speech at the Legacy shrine service in April,” said Mr McKinnon.

“Last years winner spoke to 3500 to 4000 students and next year it will be at maximum capacity of 5000 students so that’s not a bad gig.”

The state final of Legacy Junor Public Speaking Competition will take place on Wednesday 6 September with speeches starting from 10.30am.