Community & Business
15 November, 2023
Lions Youth of the Year winner
The Pittsworth Lions Club held its annual Lions Youth of the Year program, giving three Year 11 students of Pittsworth State High School (PSHS) the opportunity to develop their leadership, public speaking, communication and interview skills.
Pittsworth Lions member James Evans, who has been organising the event since 2009, worked closely with the new Lions Youth of the Year Co-ordinator Kerri Crighton to prepare this year’s program.
Initially, five students put their hands up to take part in this year’s event, however a clash in social calendars resulted in only three participants.
The program began with the submission of an entry form from each student, followed by a round of private interviews that were held at the high school earlier in the day.
Subjects touched on in their interviews included youth crime, homelessness and climate change.
Three judges made up the panel - Police Sergeant Tim Hoffman, Kerry McIntyre and Helen Everingham.
The PSHS students who participated this year were Kiera Macdonald, Jess Hegarty and Jilli Tandy.
The formal part of the evening commenced at 7pm on Wednesday at the Pittsworth Motor Inn.
Current year 12 student and winner of last year’s Lions Youth of the Year, Lachie Crighton, imparted words of encouragement to the girls prior to the speeches. He described the program as greatly beneficial to him and insisted that speaking in public does get easier with time.
Each of the students had to make two impromptu talks followed by a prepared speech on a topic of their choice to be delivered in a strict five minute time frame.
David Garratt acted as timekeeper on the night.
The questions put to each student during their impromptu speeches were:
2023 is almost at an end. If you could choose one person, team or group who have had a significant impact on Australia this year, in either a positive or negative manner, who would it be and why would you select them?
Recently the Australian people voted no in the Referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Voice to Parliament. This received some criticism nationally and internationally. Is it fair to call Australia a racist country based on this result alone?
Each student then delivered their prepared speeches on their chosen topics, which were as follows:
Kiera Macdonald: the benefits of using the ChatGPT AI system for refining conversations;
Jess Hegarty: the profound sense of community that is only found in regional towns like Pittsworth;
Jilli Tandy: the reality of being a young person in the 21st century.
The title was well contested as the panel of judges deliberated for some time to decide upon a winner.
This year, the Lions Youth of the Year winner was Jess Hegarty and the Public Speaking Award was given to Kiera Macdonald.
Jess will now progress to the regional round which will be held in March next year.
Judge Kerry McIntyre described the girls as ‘confident, young women’ but commented on the need for all students to broaden their perspectives to form wider, more worldly views, that go beyond Pittsworth and the local community.
On behalf of all the judges, Kerry commended the girls on their courage for entering the program, being only three out of a cohort of 60 students to take up the challenge.
James Evans entertained the attendees as MC for the evening with his usual array of jokes.
Also in attendance were the students’ family members, PSHS Principal Dan Lindenmayer, and Pittsworth Lions Club members.
