San Juan Students Speechify for Rotary Club

Seven students stepped up to the microphone Wednesday to give depth to the age-old, beauty pageant question about achieving world peace.

Invited by their English or speech teachers, the students—and in one case the sister of a San Juan Hills High student–competed in a speech contest in front of the San Juan Capistrano Rotary Club.

The topic was the Rotary Club’s  2010-2011 theme, “Building Communities, Bridging Continents,” and three bona fide judges from Toastmasters were on hand to select a winner.

Later, Harry Akioka of the Laguna Hills Toastmasters would take Katie Brady aside to encourage her. She did great, he said, but because she was reading her brother’s speech, she wasn’t eligible to win.

“He got pneumonia,” Brady said of her brother Ryan, a freshman at San Juan Hills. The seventh-grader took to the podium at restaurant, holding her brother’s speech. “So I’ll be reading it. We’ll see how that goes.”

Ryan’s speech described how joining the cross country team in high school has changed his life. At and , “I pretty much only associated with my small clique of friends that I grew up with. We were all similar, upper-middle class, white kids from privileged backgrounds,” Katie read.

Without joining the school’s cross country team, Ryan wrote that he never would have met ”Cammy, Chimp and Pedraza,” who are among his best friends now.

“Being on the same team,” Katie read, “and sharing a love for running has formed a brotherhood … Through this experience, I have grown to be more open-minded, more sensitive to the unique challenges that some in our community face and more appreciative of all the different segments of our community here in San Juan Capistrano.”

He added that the 7-mile runs also gave him an up-close appreciation for his home town.

Freshman Bruce Galbraith placed first and won $150. His speech focused on the difference one person can make.

“I’m not saying you should fly to an African village and go build houses right away. That would be great, but start small,” Galbraith said. “Help a senior citizen cross the road, give money to a homeless man, donate some old clothes to a shelter.”

Galbraith had his own epiphany in 2006, after a tsunami hit Sri Lanka. “That was when I decided I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing as innocent people were suffering. However, when you’re 10-years-old, there’s not a lot you can do, or so I thought.”

Galbraith opened a lemonade stand and vowed to give 100 percent of the proceeds to a charity that was aiding tsunami victims. He made $50, and for a brief moment, thought twice about giving it away. But the temptation passed.

“I have never experienced such a rewarding feeling in my life,” he said. “You don’t always have to do something involving a large amount of money. It’s the thought that counts.”

Second-place winner Benji Deladillo, a junior and founder of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club,  preached tolerance for people with differences.

“Only 12 states in the US have laws that make it illegal to fire or not hire someone for a job because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” she said. “In 76 countries around the world, it is illegal to even be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Exemplified here are blatant displays of homophobia and transphobia.”

She ended her speech with a literal shout: “The electric current of unity runs throughout us all, because we are the heartbeat of the revolution.”

Deladillo won $100 for placing second, and freshman Yasmine Maize took home third and a $50 check.

Before they left, Akioka gathered all the students and gave them a teaching moment. “Look at their foreheads, not their eyes, it makes you less nervous,” he advised. “Your speeches are fine. You just have to cut and practice.”