(KATONAH) A panel of three judges, including Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts, chose the upper and middle school winners in The Harvey School’s 55th annual speech contest Thursday in the Lasdon Theater of The Walker Center for the Arts.
Initiated at Harvey in 1958 by a first-year teacher of what was then an English-style boarding school for boys in grades one through eight, the contest today is a schoolwide project in which all students, boys and girls, in grades six through 12 write original persuasive essays and deliver them orally. The English teachers narrowed the field to 14 finalists who presented their speeches before the judges at the assembly of the entire school community of students and staff as well as members of the board of trustees and the parents of the contestants.
This year’s upper school winner is junior Mary Nichols with a speech entitled “To All Ye Martyrs of Heartbreak, the Apocalypse Is Not Nigh.” In her speech, flavored with some self-effacing humor, Mary recounted her own personal tale of being once spurned by her romantic interest and counseled her schoolmates to “never lose hope.” She told her audience, “You can never forget that your wounds will close and you will be able to love again.”
Mary said she wanted her speech to help other students learn to deal with personal setbacks. She said, “I just wanted my classmates to know what I learned so when their hearts end up in pieces, they can use my advice to avoid getting into a funk.” Mary said junior year is a challenge “and certainly not a good time to get into a funk.” She said her “general nervousness” did not allow her to enjoy the process involved in the contest, but she admitted liking the outcome.
The upper school runner-up was 10th-grader Jasmine Brouwer who won Honorable Mention for her thoughtful speech on the role fate plays in our lives.
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The middle school winner, Abigail Sirota, delivered a speech called “Believe in Yourself.” While awaiting the decision from the judges, the sixth-grader said she was thinking, “If I win, great, but if I don’t, there’s always next year.” In her speech, she recalled how she lacked confidence when she was younger, but credits her parents and friends with developing her self-confidence. “They helped boost me up and believe in myself,” she said. Commenting on the long tradition of the speech contest at Harvey, Abigail said, “It’s great that Harvey gives students the chance to speak up and share their opinions”
Seventh-grader Brooke Dodderidge of Mt. Kisco earned Honorable Mention in the middle school competition for her speech entitled, “An Organized Mess.”
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The other finalists were middle schoolers Maxwell Weigel (6th) and Kylene Groff (8th) of Katonah, Hana Cornell (8th) of Amawalk, Zoe Lewis (7th), and upper school students Sami Feuerstein (9th), Curtis Grellier (9th), Emily Sirota (10th), Marcus Plummer (11th), Lily Brouwer (12th) and Harry Solomon (12th) of Bedford.
Joining Supervisor Roberts on the judging panel were Harvey alum Phil Eifert ’73, owner of Allstate - Katonah Insurance Agency and attorney Albert Durante of Durante, Bock & Tota, PLLC. in Yorktown Heights.
