Daniella Wilson won the Area oratorical contest.
Junior Reaches State Level in Legion Contest
Daniella Wilson, who won the American Legion Post and District Oratorical Contests, completed a hat trick on February 23 by winning the Area 6 competition at Hollywood Post 43.
The Brentwood School junior now moves on to the Department of California (state level) in Clovis this Sunday, March 3.
In a prior story, one judge described Wilson as “Manifestly confident, she opened with the question, setting an intimate tone as if she were in conversation with us. ‘Why has the Constitution endured for two centuries?’ she asked. Her answer: ‘compromise,’ which the drafters understood when trying to write a document that would ensure fair representation for both the small states and large and help to maintain a balance of power in government.”
Her eight-minute speech “Rediscovering the Constitutional Virtue of Compromise,” which she wrote and delivered without notes, earned her $400 at the Post level and $500 at the District level.
She took home $600 from the Area contest and hopes to sweeten her bank account at State, where first place is $1,200 and the chance to compete in the Nationals in Indianapolis, where the top prize is $18,000.
In addition to preparing an eight-minute speech, participants must be ready to deliver a three- to five-minute speech on one of four amendments: Amendment 1, Amendment 4, Amendment 13 and Amendment 21.
At the Area contest, Wilson spoke on the 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.