Mara McGurl, a student at East Coweta Middle School, recently won the Optimist Club of Senoia’s Oratorical Contest. This year’s Optimist International theme - “Why Me? Why Not?” - was explored by Ms. McGurl and all of the other contestants.

McGurl was awarded a gold medallion and a monetary prize from the local club at its March 6 event. In addition, she will represent the Senoia Optimist Club in the Zone Contest that will be held at the Senior Citizens’ Center in Senoia on March 13 at 7:00 p.m. At the Zone Contest, McGurl will compete against winners from other Optimist Clubs in the area. The final levels of the Optimist contest are Area and finally District, at which participants can compete to win a scholarship.

“Mara is a previous winner at the Senoia level and higher. She did a wonderful job of delivering this year’s assigned theme,” Club President Steve Lowe said.

Prizes and monetary gifts were awarded for the top 3 positions as selected by the judges. In addition to McGurl, other participants in the Senoia Club’s contest were Autumn Wilson – 2nd place (Eastside Elementary), Madison Owens – 3rd place (East Coweta Middle School), and Hannah Bennett (Eastside Elementary).

Judges for the Senoia Optimist Club’s Oratorical Contest were Terry Braswell, Cindy Silloway, and Dr. Wayne Gordon.

The Optimist Club of Senoia has been participating in the Optimist Oratorical Contest for many years and has been active in the community since it was chartered in 1985. David Gay served this year as the Oratorical Contest Chair for the Senoia Club.

The Optimist International Oratorical Contest is available each year to students under the age of 16 years as of December 31 of the current school year and who are educated in the United States, Canada or the Caribbean. Interested students submit a speech on the pre-assigned topic to their local Optimist Club. More than $150,000 in college scholarships are awarded annually from this program.

First conducted in 1928, this is the second most popular Optimist International Program. Nearly 2,000 clubs participate in this program each year.

Other programs and service projects in which the Senoia Optimist Club is involved include Youth Fingerprinting, Respect for Law, Youth Appreciation, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch, and the Optimist Essay contest.

Optimist International is one of the world’s largest service club organizations with 120,000 adult and youth members in 3,800 clubs in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico and throughout the world. Carrying out the mottos “Friend of Youth” and “Bringing Out the Best in Kids”, Optimists conduct positive service projects that reach more than six million young people each year. To learn more about Optimist International, please call (314) 371-6000 or visit the organization’s website at www.optimist.org. If you would like to learn more about the Optimist Club of Senoia, please call Steve Lowe at (770) 463-5366 or Hal Sewell at (770) 599-6097.

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