Ben Mast of Rainy River wins district speech contest

By Elisabeth Heslop
Summer Reporter

When Grade 6 student Ben Mast found out he had won his school’s speech contest, his family’s initial “knee-jerk” reaction was to skip the district-wide one, according to his dad, Mark.
That’s because they had a previous engagement: a long drive to Chicago for his older brother’s graduation from Moody Bible Institute.
“We were planning to leave at five in the morning,” Mark Mast noted.
But representing the Sturgeon Creek Alternate Program at the 2009 district speech contest is no small matter, so the next idea was that the family would go on ahead while Ben would stay behind with someone in town so he could compete.
In the end, that wasn’t good enough, either.
“We have five children and we feel it is important to recognize the accomplishments of each of them,” Mark Mast said. “[So] we decided to stay for the contest and drive through the night.”
So there they sat last Thursday evening in the Robert Moore School gymnasium to watch their son compete.
“If he wins, it’ll be the icing on the cake,” Mast said.
Eleven students from across the district engaged the audience with topics like “Couch Potato Syndrome,” “Procrastination,” and “The Agony of Speeches.”
Lorianne Dueck, from Donald Young School in Emo, spoke of her journey to overcome her fears after her family’s house burned down this past winter.
Ian Kitt, from St. Francis School, spoke passionately about animal abuse while Jessica Haw, from Sturgeon Creek School, described her Oma’s courage and determination when she immigrated from the Netherlands to Canada.
Other topics were “Advertising,” “Segregation,” “Conjoined Twins,” “Eating Disorders,” and Mast’s topic, “Skiing.”
After the judges deliberated, Kitt was awarded third place while Angela Cole, also from St. Francis, earned second place for her speech on the inspirational example of conjoined twins Abbey and Brittany Hensel.
Mast, with his tale of the day when he realized he was “not meant to ski,” captured first place.
Mast, in fact, was the only Grade 6 student in the contest (the others being in either Grade 7 or 8).
As Mast’s family quickly gathered up their jackets and headed for the car, Mark Mast grinned and said staying for the contest definitely was worth it
Contest emcee, Diane Carlson, literacy co-ordinator for the Rainy River District School Board, said the students were an inspiration.
“I’m amazed at how confident they are standing up there and giving their speeches,” she remarked.
The former teacher added a focus on oral communication is a relatively new thing, and has significant benefits for teaching methods.
“It used to be that a good teacher had a quiet classroom,” Carlson noted. “Now it is a more boisterous atmosphere—there is lots of talking.
“But I think that is what helps them [students] prepare for things like this.
“As a society, we are starting to understand [oral communication] more,” Carlson added. “What they can think, they can say, what they can say, they can write, and what they can write, they can read.”
The judges for the night were Maureen Ricard, Catherine Bruyere, and Ed Carlson.
The questioners, who each asked the students a question after their speech to help them expand on their topic, were Fort Frances Times reporter Heather Latter and RRDSB trustee Terry Higgins.
Also on hand were Anne Marie Fitzgerald, chair of the Northwest Catholic District School Board, and Heather Campbell, superintendent of education for the local public school board.