LCHS student wins $700 in Veteran’s competition
By Major (RET) Gary Siembor
Congratulations to Isabella Handley. Senior Isabella Handley took 3rd place Kentucky in a nationwide Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “Voice of Democracy” competition, a VFW competition for High School students each year.
Students are given a topic in which they must write and vocalize a three minute speech. Contestants are judge on content, delivery, voice inflection and composure.
Isabella placed 1st place locally with VFW Post 6109, and she received one hundred dollars from the VFW. Shelby Taylor finished second place and received fifty dollars. Both students received a check from Post Commander Don Wolfe during an assembly at the High School.
The VFW Post Commander Don Wolfe was one of the judges for the local post competition and he stated that it was very close between the two young ladies, for both did an outstanding job.
The entire project was one of several pet projects that Commander Wolfe has implemented and he was very happy that in the very first year that Post 6109 held the contest, that the contestants did so well.
Last year Post 6109 was selected to judge the district finalists and they used the same judges for this year local scoring. Mr. “Chico” Prince who also judged last year, commented that both the scored in the 90’s (out of a 100) and that was substantially higher than last year’s District finalists.
Mr. Scott Osborn, another teacher who also assisted in the judging, said he “was very pleased but not surprised on how well our students compared to contestants from all over the state”.
Major Gary Siembor assisted Commander Wolfe with implementing the local contest He said he was trilled. “This was no easy task but I knew our students would excel,” Seimbor said.
With this being Major Siembor’s last year teaching, he stated that the program is in good hands with Mr. Osborn and Mr. Prince. “They saw firsthand how good this can be for our community,” Siembor said.
The winner of each Post is forwarded to a District for judging. The District has 16 posts in it and Isabella Handley also won 1st place in District, earning another $100. From District, Isabella’s recorded speech was forwarded to the State Competition. She placed 3rd in a very close voting at the state competition and won five hundred dollars.
