Making sure their voices are heard

Lions Youth of the Year Zone final won by Mount Gambier & Penola speakers

The Lions Club of Mount Gambier hosted the 2023 Zone 11 Final of Lions Youth of the Year at the Mount Gambier Community RSL earlier this month with Callum McIntyre, sponsored by the Lions Club of Mount Gambier and Rochelle Crawford, sponsored by the Lions Club of Penola, earning the right to represent the zone at the March 19 district final in Robe.

Mia Kleinig, from Grant High School, Alisha Cram and Callum McIntyre-Gregory, from Mount Gambier High School, and Rochelle Crawford, from Penola High School, went through an interview process in the morning and in the afternoon, participated in the Public Speaking section.

Participants are given two minutes to respond to two impromptu questions and then present a five minute prepared speech on a topic of their choosing.

The zone finalists had to formulate their thoughts on ‘Is social media an asset or a hazardous liability to teens and young adults?’ and ‘What could wealthy people in Australia do to understand and support those living in extreme financial difficulties?’

The prepared topics threw up some diverse discussion points with Mia talking about eating disorders, Callum looking at equality for all, Alisha focussed on the LGBTQ community, outlining the difficulties faced by young people in particular who identify as LGBTQ and Rochelle pondered why Australia is so short staffed.

The judges for the day were Vicki Ridley, Lachlan Wookey and Tony Elletson and they had the unenviable task of choosing two overall winners plus a Public Speaking winner.

The Public Speaking Section winner was Callum McIntyre-Gregory and Callum and Rochelle won the right to head to the Robe district finals..

PUBLIC SPEAKING WINNER: Callum McIntyre-Gregory, who was also one of the two overall winners chosen to head to the district final, with judge Vicki Ridley

OVERALL WINNER: Rochelle Crawford (Penola High School), who joins Callum as a district final representative, and Penola Lion Ray Haines.