8/10/2019 Oratorical Competition Letter to Schools
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The American Legion
Orcutt Post 534145 W. Clark Avenue, Orcutt, California 93455
September 8, 2014
TO: T. Rhine, RHS / P. Norton, OAHS / K. Apple, PVHS / A.
Salomon, SMHS /B. Gordon, SJHS
FR: Alan Munch, American Legion Oratorical Scholarship
Chairman
SUBJ: 2015 Oratorical Scholarship Competition
The American Legion, Orcutt Post 534, is pleased to announce its
intention to once againsponsor the 2015 American Legion Oratorical
Scholarship competition for high school students inthe Santa Maria
area. The top three contestants can earn scholarship funds toward
their collegetuition, with the 1 st place contestant becoming
eligible to win additional monetary awards at each ofthe other four
levels of the speech competitions (District, Area, State and
National). The 1 st placestudent at each level will win scholarship
money, and the 1 st place winner at the State level will alsogo on
to the National competition, which includes a Legion paid trip to
Washington, D.C. for thecontestant and an escort, and who could
ultimately win a total of more than $21,000. in
scholarshipmoney.
The contestants will be delivering an 8 to 10-minute prepared
speech on a pre-assigned aspectof the Constitution of the United
States, and one 3 to 5-minute extemporaneous speech on one offive
topics that will be assigned just minutes before their
presentation. Yes - this is a challengingevent that only the most
confident and capable students will even want to consider. We have
madearrangements with local Toastmasters Clubs to provide mentors
to help the contestants polishtheir speech content and delivery
skills if they so choose.
If you are interested in making this American Legion scholarship
program available to yourschools students, we will need you, or a
member of your schools staff, to be our principle contact,and to
reply back to me via my e-mail address ( [email protected] ), or
by phone: 937-8598 bySeptember 15 th. The designated staff member
would be expected to coordinate the promotion* and,if desired, the
mentoring of the students who are interested in participating. The
first (Post) level ofthe competition is scheduled to take place on
January 3, 2015 at the Veterans Memorial CommunityCenter in Santa
Maria. We will need the name(s) of any student(s) interested in
participatingfrom your school by October 20 th . However, to enable
the participating students ample time tobecome knowledgeable about
our countrys Constitution, to prepare their speeches and to
practicetheir presentations, we would stress the importance of
starting your promotion of this scholarshipopportunity as soon as
possible.
Should you have any questions about this youth scholarship
program of the American Legion,please feel free to contact me. *I
will also make myself available to visit your campus to help
yourecruit participants if you would like. Additional information
is also available from the AmericanLegions National website:
http://www.legion.org/oratorical , and/or the Legions California
website:http://wwwlcaligion.org/html/oratoricalcontest.html .
For God and Country,
Alan T. MunchChairman, Americanism Committee,
Oratorical Scholarship Committee
