A local student is heading to provincial qualifiers this weekend for the Royal Canadian Legion’s public speaking competitions.
Grade 12 student Carolyn Yungblut will be in Shelburne on Saturday to represent Huntsville High School (HHS) in the competition. If she wins, she’ll head to Toronto on May 3 for the provincial finals.
“I’m very excited,” says Yungblut. “My whole family is coming to watch, cheer me on, and I’m just trying to stay calm and keep in a positive mindset. And if you believe you’re going to do well, that’s usually how it goes.”
Yungblut has already won three levels of the Legion’s competition, taking home a trophy for HHS. She says her speech focuses on youth health, wellness, and fitness—going into the importance of staying active, and backed up by statistics and things you can do.
“It’s just something I’ve been passionate about, and it was something I could write a speech about too,” says Yungblut. “I really love public speaking, and I’m very humbled to have won at these three levels so far. I’m just excited to see what’s coming next.”
Yungblut has also run a series of fitness sessions for HHS students over the past few months, thanks to a grant of a few thousand dollars from the Public Health Agency of Canada. She says the sessions involved about 20 students doing circuit exercises in 45-second increments.
“The school has been super helpful, I’ve had so many teachers help me out, and so it’s been a really fun program so far,” says Yungblut. “We just had our last session on Tuesday. It was fun, a really great seven weeks. We had a lot of people come out and a lot of people getting fit.”
As she’ll soon be graduating, Yungblut says she hopes the sessions can go on without her.
“I would love to continue the program,” she says. “Finding someone to lead this is probably going to be a little bit tricky, but I’m hoping someone can take it on because it’s been a lot of fun.”
Yungblut adds she’s also working with HHS’ athletic council over the next few weeks to organize fitness-related spirit days, and will be giving her speech at an upcoming assembly. She thanks the Legion for giving her a chance to get her message out.
“I would also like to thank the Legion, because they’ve given me the platform to speak about this, which has been really helpful,” says Yungblut. “My ideas are actually being heard, so I’m really grateful for all of their help.”