On Wednesday the first-ever FDT Canadian Public Speaking Contest came to a rousing finish with a live Grand Final on Zoom. FDT was so happy to receive nearly 200 submissions and for each submission, FDT donated $5 to Food Banks Canada. In total we donated $1,000 to Food Banks Canada to help with Canadians struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, a fellow educational organization, Read Speak Lead, was inspired by our efforts and donated over $5,000 on their own to Food Banks Canada.
We launched the FDT Canadian Public Speaking Contest during this difficult time for a few reasons. We wanted to give youth a chance to engage their minds while socially distancing during this pandemic and to introduce students across Canada to public speaking; each submission received feedback from a qualified FDT instructor or alumnus. Most importantly, we wanted to give back to our community and inspire hope in youth by asking them to speak about either \”The Heroes of COVID-19\” or \”The World After Quarantine\”.
Our grand final on Wednesday featured 11 finalists in the Grade 4-7 category and 10 finalists in the Grade 8-12 category. We were honoured to be joined by distinguished judges including…
Vanessa Ponce de Leon – Miss World 2018
Amira de Vera – Founder, Project Four Public Relations
Chris Hatch – CEO, Food Banks Canada
Olivia Railton – World Speech Champion
Frankie Cena – Founding Director, FDT Academy
We are happy to announce the winners in the Grade 4-7 category:
1st Place ($2000 prize): Pritika Lahiri from Homelands Senior Public School (ON)
2nd Place ($1000 prize): Millie Steinmann from Country Day School (ON)
3rd Place ($500 prize): Jin Zhou from Henderson Avenue Public School (ON)
The winners in the Grade 8-12 category were:
1st Place ($3000 prize): Zaki Lakhani from Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (AB)
2nd Place ($2000 prize): Ashley Wong from Mulgrave School (BC)
3rd Place ($1000 prize): Rafeeq Kassam-Jiwani from West Point Grey Academy (BC)
We want to congratulate all of our finalists on their hard work and success as well as all of the gifted students from across Canada who sent in their submissions!