February 17, 2014 at 11:35 a.m.
Oneida County students give conservation speeches at courthouse
Oneida County students give conservation speeches at courthouse
By Kayla Thomason-
Topics ranged from invasive water plants to algae as the students participated in the Oneida County Land and Water Conservation speaking contest.
The winners of the Elementary Division were, from first to third place, Grace Ribbe, Sydney Lurvey and Kamryn Anderson. The winner in the Junior Division was Martin Hoger. Ben Metzger and Grace Hoger won the senior division.
The first-place winners will go on to compete in the regional contest Feb. 21 in Wausau. If they place first there they will advance to state competition March 10 in Appleton.
Ribbe, a sixth grader in Three Lakes, did her speech on phragmites after hearing and reading news reports on the topic.
"I knew it was good and I had a lot of information on it," Ribbe said.
Martin Hoger, from Three Lakes Junior High School, placed with his speech on blue-green algae.
"Well I noticed that this summer when I was down on the dock with my dog and we were going to go fishing and then the giant scum thing of blue-green algae was just disgusting," Martin Hoger said.
Grace Hoger, from Three Lakes High School, placed with her speech on the hemlock woolly adelgid.
"Hemlocks are my favorite kind of trees and my dad was telling me they were in danger and I just got worried about them," Hoger said. Hoger has competed in the state conservation speeking contest twice and has been giving conservation speeches since fifth grade.
Metzger won with his speech on the asian long-horned beetle. He is a junior at the Three Lakes High School and has been giving conservation speeches since fifth grade.
"I really like public speaking and I wanted to get something that was a pretty new topic," Metzger said.
The audience and judges were quite impressed with the students' speeches.
"I thought they were all pretty well prepared, it's a lot of work I know it is," Dorothy Rudolph said. Rudolph has been attending the contest since her children participated.
Lynn Feldman, one of the judges, was pleased with the passion and excitement the contestants had about their topic.
"All of the speeches were awesome, they were well prepared," Feldman said. "The self-esteem that you see develop in them because they know that they are doing a good job and they know that these points are important, they live in the Northwoods so this is more than just doing a speech on conservation."
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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