The glory of peanut butter and jam, sending old people to space, and Steve Irwin were on the lips of the region’s best young speakers last week.
Waimea College library played host to 14 primary school students for the 40th Lions Club of Richmond annual primary school speech contest on Wednesday evening.
The students had earned their spot by competing against their school mates at earlier in-house speech competitions.
First up was Brightwater School’s Ethan Deane, whose topic of ‘Friendship’ led him to explore the relationship between peanut butter and jam, with a few interesting historical points thrown in the mix.
“Friends don’t need to be similar or like the same things, jam doesn’t try to be nutty, and peanut butter doesn’t try to be sweet,” he told the crowd.
His speech earned him third equal placing with Ranzau School’s India Jacobsen and Nelson Christian Academy’s Kara Kinyua.
It was the first time in the competition’s 40-year history that three judges' scoring resulted in a shared placing.
India Jacobsen's ‘Too Old’ speech seemed to be a hit with both young and old, when she pointed out the flaws of “old people” – anyone over the age of 70.
“Their bodies don’t work properly, they drink too much tea, and go for slow walks.
Send them to space she put simply, then we won’t have to wait for them to slowly cross the road.
“Wait, without grandparents, there will be no lollies, and Santa’s an old person!”
So, it was decided, old people could stay.
St Paul’s School’s Levi Dalton arrived dressed like Steve Irwin, and it wasn’t long before his catchphrase ‘Crikey’ rang out. His speech came complete with a snake around his neck, and a lizard thrown into the crowd.
His fact-laden presentation earned him second place in the contest.
Richmond School’s Elzette Matthewson stepped on the stage to talk about her chosen topic of Space, not the astro, star-filled space, but personal space, and the importance of it.
She was warmed by laughs from the adults in the room when she recalled her recent trip to Rarotonga and the person next to her claiming the armrest as their own, something that made her want to “eject myself out of the airplane”.
Her speech concluded with a warning to everyone in the room: “leave the armrest alone”.
It won her first place in the competition.
