Miranda Northrup, a sophomore at Sonoraville High School, recently won the Gordon Optimist Club’s oratorical contest based on a theme of “If I Were Leader of the Free World, the First Issue I Would Address Would be ….”

Northrup was awarded $50 and a first place medallion for the honor. In addition, Northrup and runners-up Lloyd Bearden, Calhoun H.S) and Randy Wilson, Sonoraville H.S. will be sent to the zone level where they will compete against winners from other Optimist Clubs in the area. The winner of the zone competition will be sent to the district level with the chance to win a scholarship.

“All three students did a wonderful job presenting their speech about the questions posed to them,” said Optimist Club president Raina Sanford. “The members of Gordon Optimist Club have no doubt that these students have a bright future ahead of them.”

According to www.optimist.org:

Optimist International is one of the world’s largest service club organizations with 100,000 adult and youth members in 3,400 clubs in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico and throughout the world.

The Optimist Oratorical Contest is one of the organiza-tion’s most popular programs, with more than 2,000 clubs participating annually. Carrying the motto “Bringing Out the Best in Kids.”