Lions sponsor contest for student speakers

For The Madera Tribune This year’s contestants and contest organizers, from left, are Lion Galen Wright, contest chair; Anthony Gutierrez; Jaci Huerta; contest winner Meliza Lopez; and Breakfast Lions president, Lion Ron Snipes. Meliza Lopez is now eligible to compete at the next higher level of the statewide contest, the Zone Level in Chowchilla on March 10.

---

The Lions Clubs of California are sponsoring the 81st annual student speaker contest. This year marks the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Madera Breakfast Lions and as many years that the Club has promoted youth through the student speaker program.

Besides offering an opportunity for self-expression and for public speaking, a key purpose of the statewide contest is to promote critical thinking regarding the problems we face in maintaining the U.S. as a free nation. Speakers this year are asked to answer the question, “Integrity and Civility Play What Role in Today’s Society?”

The three Madera South High School students who competed on Feb. 15 in this year’s contest spoke of the need for all of us to treat one another with basic dignity and respect.