Young Masterton woman Antonia Anisy is heading once more in to the breach with her award-winning essay on Kiwi soldiers in World War I.
Ms Anisy, 19, is today in Christchurch as a Masterton Holdsworth Lions Club finalist in the national Lions Clubs Young Speechmakers contest.
Contest organiser Kerry Beach said 97 students entered the contest heats held in seven Lions districts throughout New Zealand with 21 speechmakers set to represent their areas today at the St Marks Presbyterian Church Complex in the South Island city.
The annual event has been held for over 30 years with the winner this year receiving a trip to Canada and the United States during the Christmas holidays, Ms Beach said.
The contest runner-up offered the chance to attend an international youth camp at Lake Okataina near Rotorua, he said.
The contest was open to speechmakers aged from 17 to 21 with each entrant expected to complete a five-minute prepared speech and an impromptu speech of up to two minutes, he said.
"Each year you think they can't get any better, but they do. That's why we need to have strict judging criteria", he said.
Each finalist will be judged on voice and grammar, speech structure, development and speech value and effectiveness and past winners have regularly featured in international debating and speechmaking competitions, Mr Beach said.
Ms Anisy said her speech that won the regional heat was an amended version of an essay she wrote as a St Matthews pupil in 2006 that won her a trip to Belgium as national winner of the inaugural Last Post Association International Essay Competition.
The essay calls for listeners to remember the sacrifice made by New Zealand soldiers during World War I and Ms Anisy is to deliver during the Lions speechmakers finals a still further amended version of the piece.
Ms Anisy said she would use two props during her delivery - a small cross and a lit candle - and hopes her words will carry weight with the Christchurch audience and judges alike.
"The idea of the essay, and my speech, is not to tell people what to believe but invites them to remember people who did a lot, and lost so much, for us all."
Speech star aims for more success
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