Main photo: The winners of the inaugural Mayor’s Public Speaking Contest (front from left) Carolyn Yungblut and Natalie Juszczak who tied for third place, first place Keira Marshall, and second place Azriel Fleming with judges (back from left) Councillor Jonathan Wiebe, Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano and Mayor Scott Aitchison
Five talented people were recognized at Monday night’s council meeting.
Mayor Scott Aitchison announced the winners of both the third annual The Bill Award and the inaugural Mayor’s Public Speaking Contest.
The Bill Award was created to honour the legacy of Bill Waterhouse, the founder of Deerhurst Resort, who was a passionate supporter of the performing arts.
It is open to performers at any stage in music or performing arts, including dance, who have a Huntsville address. They are judged on the previous year’s portfolio of work.
Judges Carol Gibson, Jennifer Johns-Main, and Ian McTavish selected local pianist Sarah Spring as the recipient of the 2018 The Bill Award. Spring received a $500 cash prize and a trophy. The 2016 winner was Jamie Bestwick; for 2017, Briar Summers took home the prize.
The 2018 The Bill Award winner Sarah Spring with Mayor Scott Aitchison
The inaugural Mayor’s Public Speaking Contest was created to replace the Decorate the Mayor’s Office art contest.
The public speaking contest was open to Huntsville-area students in grades six, seven and eight and twelve students from four schools—Huntsville Public, Riverside, Spruce Glen, and St. Mary’s—participated. They had to speak on the theme “What I love about Huntsville”.
Mayor Aitchison said that he and fellow judges Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano and Councillor Jonathan Wiebe “fought a lot” when determining the winners. “It was very difficult. We really struggled with it because they were all exceptional.”
The winners they selected were:
- First place: Keira Marshall, a grade seven student at Riverside Public School. Marshall will speak at the Town’s Canada Day celebrations at Muskoka Heritage Place at 10 a.m. on July 1. She received a cheque for $285, the combined total of Canada’s age and Huntsville’s age.
- Second place: Azriel Fleming, grade six student at Huntsville Public School, received a cheque for $152, Canada’s age this year.
- Tied for third place: Carolyn Yungblut and Natalie Juszczak, both grade seven students at Spruce Glen Public School, received $133, the age of Huntsville.
Watch Marshall’s speech below. You can see a portion of the speeches made by all participants here.
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Congratulations Sarah ! A most well deserved award and such a great way to start my day with my coffee and seeing your smiling face with Scott presenting.
Congratulations to everyone who put forth their talents and time and who bring us such pleasure just by being in their midst and sharing their gifts with us. We have a great town and it is only as great as it’s people who care and have compassion.
Our town has produced so much talent. Congratulations to all who participated.
My congratulations to all the speakers: I have found that the ability to speak in front of a crowd of varying size has been very high on my list of strengths.
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Also, a special shout-out to Sarah Spring (for the two of you who don’t know; Mary’s niece and Tobin’s sister). She is a very worthy recipient, who has a terrific, recent CD, “prints”, available online at sarahspringpiano.com (cover art by Beverley Hawksley; Hawksley Workman’s mother).