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Hollister Rotary Club met on Feb. 23 at Paine’s Restaurant to hear speeches from Hollister High School students Sophia Cebada, Aiyanna Bailey and Kathleen Lohmeier.
Cebada won first place and $300, Bailey won second place and $150, and third place speaker Lohmeier got a check for $50.
Only the first place winner goes forward to the area contest level.
“It was honestly really nerve-racking for me,” Cebada said. “I’m completely new to this, I have never done Rotary before.”
Her speech was about the sacrifice involved for people coming from a small, low-income Hispanic family.
“I watched my mom sacrifice a lot herself so that we could be successful,” she said. “I watched my father sacrifice a lot, so I wanted that to be the key theme of my speech.”
“They are judged by Rotarians who are designated as judges,” Hollister Rotary Club President Bill Baker said, “and then we have another group of Rotarians who tally up the judges’ recordings, and select the winners.”
Shawn Herrera, one of the judges (and a BenitoLink board member) told BenitoLink it was Cebada’s “original thought” that made her speech impactful and, he said, “she had charisma.”
Jasleen Bailey presenting her speech at the Hollister Rotary Richard King Speech Contest. Photo by Adam Bell. 
Kathleen Lohmeier presenting her speech at the Hollister Rotary Richard King Speech Contest. Photo by Adam Bell. 
The President of Rotary Club of Hollister Bill Baker greeting everyone for coming. Photo by Adam Bell. 
The District Area Governor Mike Sanchez speaking at the Hollister Rotary Richard King Speech Contest. Photo by Adam Bell.
“I feel like I took after it,” she said. “I felt really passionate about being able to converse with a large body of people without it being too formal in a way.”
She felt she definitely should practice more, but being new to Rotary, she wasn’t sure what the contest timeline is.
“I feel like more practice came from the actual brainstorming.” she said. “Once I brainstormed enough, I felt confident in my own ideas where I didn’t need to recite the speech a lot.”
Cebada said she thinks that so much of what people chase after now is instant fame, but people don’t realize that they have to sacrifice a lot to get there.
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