REYNOLDS — Barely able to clear the podium, 11-year-old Shauna Greene had a rhetorical question for the small audience seated stage left on the aluminium benches near the stage at the White County 4-H Fairgrounds.

“Anybody here enjoy giving speeches?” the Brookston youth asked. “I know I don’t.” 

While Shauna admittedly may not like giving speeches, she does like being in the spotlight. She was one of three Greene offspring entered in Thursday’s annual public speaking and demonstration contest. She saw the attention her sister, Jenna, 16, and brother, Brayden, 13, got from participating and wanted in on some of the action.

“I like attention. I want attention,” said Shauna, taking the complete opposite stand that Jenna took when she entered her first public speaking contest a few years ago.

“Mom makes me do it,” Jenna said, smiling.

“Jenna was a shy girl,” said her mom, Jennifer. “I felt if she could speak in public, she could speak anywhere.”

“The first year, I was terrified,” Jenna said. “I completely forgot parts of my speech.”

“But you’ve gotten more comfortable, right?” asked Jennifer, who spent three years on the debate team and six years on the speech team at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette. “Four years ago, you would have run and hid.”

The blue ribbon Jenna earned at last year’s Indiana State Fair speaks volumes.

Like Shauna, this year’s contest was Brayden’s first in public speaking. He’d done demonstrations the previous two years. He said he thought it would be fun to tell people what he thinks.

“And the topic — Mastering Life Skills Through 4-H — was too good to pass up,” Brayden added.

The contest was broken into two categories, public speaking and demonstration, and three divisions, clover, junior and senior. While Jenna competed in the senior division, her siblings competed against one another in the junior division. Their speeches were between three and five minutes long.

Judging this year’s contest was Brittney Gick, Fowler, a summer intern with the White County office of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service. Although it’s Gick’s first time serving as a judge, she said she’s helped out with the competition in the past. That, and she also has participated in public speaking contests through FFA. 

Using the 4-H public speaking contest scorecard, Gick awarded marks of for things like rapport, eye contact, gestures, enthusiasm, voice quality, word choice, enunciation and pronunciation, organization and subject matter.

Overseeing the 4-H project for the fifth year is White County extension agent Keli Whitaker. She said the goal of public speaking and demonstration is to help youngsters develop life skills they’ll need later in life. 

“It helps them think things through by preparing for when they speak in front of people,” Whitaker said, adding that contestants are judged on speaking ability, planning and organization.

Leaving behind that “shy girl” who didn’t want to give a speech four years ago, Jenna was named champion in the senior division of the public speaking contest. Younger sister, Shauna, also was named champion in the junior division, while brother, Brayden, was named reserve champion. The three of them will compete at the Indiana State Fair in early August. 



And the winners are:

Public speaking, senior division: Jenna Greene, Brookston, champion; Danica Craig, Monon, reserve champion. Public speaking, junior division: Shauna Greene, Brookston, champion; Brayden Greene, Brookston, reserve champion. Public speaking, clover division, Amanda Hoover, champion.

Demonstration, junior division: Troy Hoover, Monticello, champion. Demonstration, clover division: Grant Knobloch, Wolcott, champion; Nelson Knobloch, Wolcott, reserve champion.