Madison Moore of Yulee High School Florida Wins 2017 Rotary Oratory Final Competition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Feb. 17, 2017 - PRLog -- Madison Moore, a senior at Yulee High School, competed against five other First Coast area high school seniors to win first place in the 2017 Rotary Oratory Competition. Maria Ribeiro of University Christian School won second place.

Madison, who spoke on the topic of why Rotary should focus on fighting disease, particularly mental health, won a total of $5,500 in scholarship funds, which included receiving a $500 scholarship by winning her regional competition and $5,000 for first place in the finals.

Ribeiro took home $3,000 in scholarship funds, winning her regional and winning second place in the finals with her speech urging Rotary to focus on the issue of saving mothers and children through the empowerment of mothers and encouragement of children.

The Rotary Oratory Competition, a project by the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville, opened the competition by inviting 45 public and private high schools in the five First Coast counties. Students from 28 area high schools participated. With the help of six area Rotary Clubs, regionals were conducted to narrow the field of competitors to six participants.

The finals were held at the University of North Florida, where four other finalists were awarded $1,000 college scholarships. They included Shruti Murali of Stanton College Preparatory, Guy Fisher III of Ridgeview High School, Natalie Costello of Ponte Vedra High School and Gabe Wise of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

The high school seniors were judged by a panel that included speech and communications professors from the Edwards Waters College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville University, St. Johns River State College and the University of North Florida.

Regional competitions were held at the Rotary Club of Fernandina, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, the Rotary Club of Orange Park, the Rotary Club of St. Augustine, the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville and the Rotary Club of West Jacksonville.

The event, which was emceed by WJXT-TV anchor Mary Baer and 1010XL radio personality Jack O'Brien, was streamed live on Facebook by the U.S. Army, one of the sponsors of the Rotary competition.

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