He Got Third Place!!

I'm am....(or should I say we?) are extremely proud of Destry today. I was so excited to be invited to the Civic Oration they were having at his elementary school today. It was the Modern Woodmen of America School Speech Contest and it was fantastic! Well, at least it was for Destry!

Very plain and simple....
The theme this year was "A Person Who Has Touched Many Lives" and Destry chose JFK. Now, I'll admit, I was a little baffled why he chose someone he hardly knew or heard of since so many of his classmates were picking family and non political figures. But the idea was to get them to do research on someone they may find interesting and go through the process of filtering out information and organizing it for a speech.

I'm not going to tell you how bad of a procrastinator he is and how this speech almost got an "F" but that just makes for unnecessary drama.

Destry was really intrigued by his famous quote of "Ask not what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country." So it began there.

He got an "A" on his speech and then was asked to be one of the four from his class to represent it in the school contest. He was chosen out of 123 students overall who had to do speeches. Only 17 made it to the school competition and that is where he placed third. YIPPEEEE!! The first and second place winners get to compete at the county level. I do believe Destry would do well there. A couple of girls beat him out and maybe their speeches were a little more compelling.

First place spoke of how Jesus touched many lives and the second place winner spoke on how her grandpa touched her life and how that influences her. Hmmmm JFK competing with Jesus??? Uh, I don't think so! LOL!!


We couldn't photgraph or videotape during the oration so I don't have any video. I do have some pics of the event before and after. I will let Destry read it if you guys comment and congratulate him.

His teacher called him "a natural" and that made me smile. He's a ham alright!


Here they are waiting for the judges to arrive. I was getting nervous and he's just too calm.



The awards table. There were First, Second and Third Place, 12 Honorable Mentions and everyone got a certificate for participating.



They went from the lowest to the highest. I don't remember which kid was called first, I guess that's not important. But they asked for the top three to stand up. They didn't realize that they were in the top three until the presenter said, "If you don't have a certificate, stand up." I chuckled because when they began calling out the names, I kept saying to myself "Don't call his name. Don't call his name." And when they got to the point for the top three....I didn't care where he placed, just that he placed. Woo Hoo!

All the students did very well, the judges deliberated for over 30 minutes! I certainly didn't want to be in their shoes!

Destry gets his certificate and plaque.



Showing off his pin!


Showing of his plaque! He said he had no idea he would place at all! (awww so modest)


His classmates and his teacher. They all did an awesome job at this contest. Kudos to everyone!


We all celebrated with Destry's favorite sweetspot......Cold Stone Creamery! YUM!
He had his first Cookie Minster and it was tr`e-fab! Of course he didn't say that, but it's late and I'm tired and recovering from a horrible stomach virus that disintigrated my insides....yuck!!

But it was such a good day!
Congratulations Destry! Your Dad and I are super proud of you and love you very much!