Cedarville Speech and Debate Tournament Memories

The weekend of May 20,and 21 was the final tournament of the 2011 season. It was held at Cedarville University. It is a beautiful campus, and they ensure that their students get LOTS of exercise by having a lake in the middle of the campus buildings. There is no bridge across, you just gotta walk around it.

The children liked watching the fish. They have a huge carp in their, maybe 40 pounds, that swims with its fin out of the water most of the time. It looks like a shark fin.

This was the infamous weekend where the end of the world was predicted by Harold Camping. The youth all went outside by the lake to countdown to the appointed hour.

It was a beautiful day! After the appointed time, they all went in for the more earthly award ceremonies for the tournament.

Both boys met their personal goals for the tournament. Paul's goal was to win all his affirmative rounds, he did. He and his partner ended up 5-2. they did excellent, especially for their novice season. Thomas's goal was to make it to one final round for the tournament. He made it to TWO. This was really great.

Thomas placed in Prose Interpretation and Rhetorical Criticism. He got to spend quite a bit of time on stage.

Elizabeth did her Junior prose interpretation again. All Juniors get called up on stage to get their bag of candy and certificate.

Thomas completed the sweepstakes. All sweepstakes competitors get called on stage to receive their certificate and bag of candy. They have to complete three speeches all in different categories. It is not for the fainthearted.

Some old friends of Roger came to visit us at the tournament. Sandy taught a youth Bible Study while DH was in high school. They have kept in touch over the years. She brought her son along with her. We hadn't seen him since he was a teenager.

The highlight for the kids was playing in the pool after a long day of working hard at speech and debate.

Friday night, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 10 PM. The time the pool should close. Management was kind and let the kids use the pool an additional hour or so. That was a blessing as they all really needed to unwind.

Speech and Debate Tournament has been a real blessing to our family. The wonderful friends they have made and the experiences they have had has really resulted in a lot of growth in their lives, both spiritual and intellectual. We are looking forward to all getting to do it again next year. Thank goodness for January birthdays.

~Mom