Keep Rotorua Beautiful speech competition winners
KRB speech competition winners' (L-R): Maria Trass, Warna Karunanayake and Olivia Temm.
John Paul College's Olivia Temm was the winner the Keep Rotorua Beautiful speech competition held at Rotorua District Council this week.
Around 70 people attended the awards involving nine Year 7 and 8 students from local intermediate schools.
This year's topic was The Effect of Tagging on Our Community'.
RDC Keep Rotorua Beautiful coordinator, Rose Hiha-Agnew, said she was amazed by the depth of knowledge the students demonstrated.
Judges were really impressed by the students' passion and speech ability.
Children are well educated these days. They're very aware of social issues and can gather information quite quickly as a result of having the internet at their fingertips.
Olivia was awarded a trophy, $200, and an all-expenses paid trip to the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Conference in Auckland next month, where she will also present her winning speech.
Second place getter Warna Karunanayake from Rotorua Intermediate won $150, and third place getter Maria Trass from Mokoia Intermediate received $100. John Paul College was the winning school on points and received a trophy and $200 book voucher.