The 2023 Kingfisher County 4-H Speech Contest was held April 4 at the Kingfisher Church of the Nazarene.

The contest had 17 4-H members and Cloverbuds competing in prepared speech, demonstration, 4-H and American pledge as well as grab bag.

A prepared speech is a speech already written and typically memorized by a member that is 3-5 minutes or 5-7 minutes in length depending on the age division.

Demonstrations are speeches that show the audience how to do something with props and instruction posters.

Grab bag is an impromptu speech where youth pull an item out of a bag and they have 30 seconds to prepare a sales pitch for that item.

All speeches are judged on neatness, pronunciation and clarity of the speaker, volume and content of the speech.

Judges were Kaci Murray, Jack Leitner, Mandy McDonald and Jeff Liles.

“This contest helps 4-H members gain confidence and life skills such as public speaking,” said Heather Jones, Kingfisher County Extension educator for 4-H youth development.

“This is just one of the many great contests our county 4-H has each year.”

The results are as follows: Jessie Petty of Okarche, Kinlyn Meyers of Kingfisher and Wyatt Ince of Kingfisher, participation awards.

Intermediate division: Mady Pope of Lomega 4-H, first in extemporaneous speech; Lasi Grabow of Lomega 4-H, second in extemporaneous speech; and Ian Pope of Lomega 4-H, first in speech.

Junior division: Rylee Inskeep of Kingfisher 4-H, first in demonstration; Charlie Petty of Okarche 4-H, second in demonstration; Averie Petty of Okarche 4-H, third in demonstration; Lester Yost of Lomega 4-H, fourth demonstration; Kol Glazier of Lomega 4-H, first in Power Point presentation; Lathyn Grabow of Lomega 4-H, first in grab bag speech; and Mia Forman of Lomega 4-H, first in speech.