Area-Wide Speech Contest Leaves Homestead in First, Los Gatos in Second

A Homestead High School student, Evanny Huang, walked away with the first-place prize, in the second leg of the  Tuesday.

Huang's effort at the Campbell Rotary Club won her a check for $200, and she will move on to the next leg of the tournament—regionals.

"We're showing others all these great teenagers," says Janine Paynton, Campbell Rotarian and emcee of the event. "To me, that's one of the things people should know. Come see what we have in our future."

The area-wide contest included students representing rotary clubs from Los Gatos, Cupertino and Campbell.

Huang's speech, "The Gift of Knowing," tackled what she said is a "culture of fear," and that by learning more about what we fear, we will find more things in common than we initially suspected.

For the first time in the local Rotary's history, there was a tie for second place—Darren Hau and Steve Nugent, both from Los Gatos High School, won checks for $100 each.

"Money doesn't connect cultures, understanding does," Darren Hau said in his speech about education and learning.

Steve's speech took the Rotary to Antarctica, stressing the importance of the club's reach stretching from people to animals —in this case, the Antarctic whale.

"I believe Rotary belongs on every continent," he said in his speech.

Regionals will take place at the Los Gatos Noontime Rotary Club meeting on March 22.