Local Oratorical Contest Winners Advance At Zone Competition

PLANT CITY, FL — After placing first and second locally in the Plant City Optimist Club Oratorical Competition on Feb. 20, both orators also came out on top at the Zone 6 competition on March 27 at the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center.

Kenley Connell and Kyleigh Elliott placed first and second, respectively, in the local competition. After competing against the top two orators from Winter Haven Optimist Club’s local competition, the three judges scored Kyleigh first and Kenley second in the zone competition, finishing just one point apart in the scoring.

Kyleigh attends school at Foundation Christian Academy in Valrico while Kenley goes to Plant City High School.

The theme of this year’s contest is “Discovering the Optimism within Me." The students presented their four- to five-minute orations in front of an audience of over 40 people, including their family and guests as well as club members from both clubs. Students must be under the age of 18 as of Oct. 1 of the current school year to qualify for the competition.

“We are very proud of the improvement our students showed tonight” said Plant City Oratorical Contest chairwoman Doris Robbins. “They represented Plant City very well and we have high hopes that they will advance beyond the upcoming regional competition.”

Elliott and Connell now advance to the Southwest Region Contest at the Plant City Parks & Recreation administration conference room, 1904 South Park Road, on Saturday, April 15 at 2 p.m. where they will compete against the representatives from other Tampa Bay area zone competitions.

Region contest winners advance to the North Florida District Finals competition on April 29 in Bushnell where a $2,500 college scholarship will be awarded to the top district participant and a $1,500 scholarship to the runner-up.

The North Florida District winner will be selected to represent North Florida against other Southeast Districts, working toward a shot at the World Championship contest, both held July 21-22 in St Louis, Missouri.

A Plant City club representative has won the North Florida District finals competition and received the college scholarship nine times since 2001:

• 2001 – Jacob Rayburn
• 2002 – Caycee Hampton
• 2008 – Nathan Carson
• 2009 – Amanda Williamson
• 2011 – Mylie Feaster
• 2012 – Jesse Bingham
• 2015 – Emma Poole
• 2016 – Caroline Brummer (represented the North Florida District at the Inaugural World Championships)
• 2017 – Katelyn Yarbrough (also competed at the 2nd Annual World Championships)

First conducted by Optimist International in 1928, this is the longest-running and second-most popular Optimist International program, with over 2,000 clubs participating each year.

For more information about the Optimist Club of Plant City, contact Plant City club president Pat Stottlemyer at president@plantcityoptimistclub.org.