Early this February, students Mia Crinion and James Brooks competed in the Optimist Speech Contest. This was very last minute, and these two participants had less than four days to receive the prompt and rules, write out a speech and then practice. Both of them managed to have a speech ready to present by the time of the contest. James Brooks won first place and Mia Crinion won third place. It is truly impressive that both of these students were able to accomplish such a hard task in a short amount of time and place in the top three. We are very proud of James and Mia for their motivation to strive for excellence and we congratulate them both for their accomplishment.