The St Clare's High School Captain, an avid cross country runner and triathlete as well as a high academic achiever also won the public speaking section.

The judging was held on February 24, and consisted of two sections, an interview conducted in the Chatham High School library in the afternoon and public speaking carried out in front of an audience of about 50 people in the school's multi-purpose centre in the evening.

The students and audience were treated to an excellent meal during the evening, prepared and served by hospitality students from the school.

There were seven contestants this year: Sarah Annesley, Emily Friery, Madison Keys and Gypsy-Lee Marshall from Chatham High School and Edie Gillis, Patrick Guthridge and WenYuan LimSchneider from St Clare's High School.

In the first section of the public speaking, students were asked two impromptu questions and were required to speak for up to two minutes on each.

The questions this year related to social media and comparing online to face-to-face learning.

This is the most stressful part for the students because they don't know what to expect of the two topics, but all students acquitted themselves very well.

In the second part of the public speaking section, the students presented a prepared five minute speech on a topic of their own choosing.

These speeches ranged from amusing to introspective to uplifting and were very well received by the members of the audience.

The contest was judged by Kaneana May, Mark Kircher and Robert Weller. Both Mark and Robert are long time Youth of the Year judges, while Kaneana, a past Taree High school captain, was a contestant when at school.

Before announcing the public speaking winner and the overall winner Robert Weller spoke of ways the students could improve their speaking techniques but he also made the point that in over 30 years of judging Youth of the Year and Rotary youth contests, these young people were the best overall group he had encountered.

Patrick will now proceed to the regional judging on March 13 where he will experience the same procedures, with three different judges and compete against winners from other Lions Clubs in the region.

Every student was a credit to themselves, their families and their schools.