Los Banos Rotary Club and Lions Club held annual FFA youth speech contests 

The Rotary Club and The Los Banos Lions Club recently held public speaking competitions for the local FFA members. The Rotary Club is an international organization consisting of business and professional leaders from the community who volunteer their time and resources to support various humanitarian and educational projects, both locally and globally. Their annual speech competition topic was “Imagine Peace on Earth”. There was a total of seven contestants who delivered speeches all from the Los Banos FFA Chapter. Only the first-place winner got to move on to the next round which is in February. First place was Ava Menefee, second place was America Ordunez, and third place was Jared Vanlobensels. Larry Borelli received the honorable mention. The judges stated that as they were tallying up the points, all the contestants were extremely close and did a very good job. The Los Banos Lions Club is an organization made up of volunteers from the community who are dedicated to serving their communities and improving the lives of people in need. Their annual speech competition’s topic this year was “Social Media connects us or isolates us”. There were also seven contestants all from the Los Banos FFA Chapter. There was only one winner of this competition who received a cash prize, and got to move on to the next round. This year’s winner was Isabella Faria. This would not have been possible without Ag advisor, Sonia Falaschi and the two Ag student teachers who she put in charge of each event, Bailey Lopez and Sidney Miller. Ms. Lopez and Ms. Miller both explained how each student spent lots of time writing and preparing their speeches, making the competition this year more competitive and fun. Overall, all the participants did a great job in representing not only our community but the Los Banos FFA chapter.