Paton-Churdan junior Autumn Gannon was selected for the Individual All-State Speech Festival reading an original poem, “All Roads Lead to Alone.” According to P-C English teacher and speech coach Stephanie Pace, the poem is “a very powerful piece.”
The All-State Speech Festival will be held April 4 on the University of Northern Iowa campus.
Gannon and freshman Megan Carey both qualified for the individual state speech contest March 12 at Des Moines North High School and both received “I” ratings from all three judges on the panel. Carey’s entry was a children’s prose piece titled “My Mama Says.”
Freshman Clayton Smith also competed at the district level with a comedic prose piece titled “Yoga Mat for Sale.”
Pace reports P-C had two entries in the large group season. A short film produced by a freshmen team of Eric Thompson, Smith, Jack Bryson, Carey, Jenna Beyers, Eric Sabus and Carter Meseck received a “II” rating at the district contest at Ballard in January. The group improv team of Gannon, Carey and Beyers received a “I” rating at the district contest and an overall “II” rating at the state large group contest.
The large group and individual speech contests are held under the auspices of the Iowa High School Speech Association.
