Speech contest in Chesapeake seeks to draw in teens

CHESAPEAKE

Last month, Lauren Davis arrived early at the Indian River Library, eager for the teen public speaking contest.

She fashioned a stage and set out chairs for the audience. She laid out rating sheets, in case audience members wanted to judge contestants themselves. And she had the prize money - $150 of her own earnings - tucked away in her purse.

Then she waited. And waited.

After 45 minutes it became clear that no teenage contestant was going to deliver a speech and claim the prize money.

"Not one solitary person came," she said.

So she left, and used the money to buy a pair of pumps with a wooden heel and pink and purple butterflies.

For Davis, though, the shoes were no replacement for the voices of young people embracing the art of the public speech.

Davis got the idea for a public speaking contest after the Chesapeake chapter of the Hampton Roads Boys and Girls Club disbanded its teen program about a month ago. She's a corporate trainer who usually gives speaking classes to adults. Davis taught a class through the club and wanted to continue her work with teens even if the program no longer existed.

She's determined to show up again and again until, hopefully, her library vigil gets a little less lonely.

"And if no one comes, I'll buy myself another pair of shoes," she said.

Davis said she was "not totally surprised" when nobody showed up last month to speak on the topic of "Money," despite the fact that she distributed 150 fliers promoting the contest. When she proposed a speech contest to her class at the Boys and Girls Club, she lost seven of her 10 students.

"They're scared to death," she said. "Which is exactly what we're trying to work on."

Public speaking is high on the list of people's fears, although the idea that people are more afraid of public speaking than death "is a myth," said Diane Ryan, who teaches public speaking at Tidewater Community College's Virginia Beach campus.

Students usually put off taking her required class until the last possible semester, she said.

She reminds them that employers routinely list the ability to articulate ideas clearly as one of the main skills they look for in job candidates.

Davis will be back in the Indian River Library again on Thursday, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. She'll have her makeshift stage and her rating sheets. She'll be waiting - alone if she must - for some brave soul to come speak out on this month's topic: "Failure."

And if no one shows up, well, she's been looking for a new pair of peep-toe heels. In red.

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com