Rochester Lions Club Youth of the Year organiser Hedley Moon and regional winner Oakley Tarrant. Photos: Emily Donohoe.
Photo by
Emily Donohoe
Following his success at the Lions Youth of the Year competition, Rochester Secondary College Year 12 student and school captain Oakley Tarrant has advanced to the state competition.
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Oakley took out the Rochester competition, before travelling to Wangaratta for the district event, where he also won.
He will now head down to Torquay for the state final of the Youth of the Year program, held this Saturday, March 29.
“I’m nervous... but I’m confident,” Oakley said.
“All I’ve gotta do is talk well about myself and do well in the impromptu, and I’ll be okay.
“Obviously, this is going to be the hardest stage.”
Young people from across the country participate in the Lions Youth of the Year program, which involves a private interview, a prepared speech and impromptu questions.
Long-standing Lions member Hedley Moon works with Rochester Secondary College to organise the annual competition.
“Here in Rochester, we think it’s great for the contestants, as they’re into that stage of their life where they’re looking to head out into the community and look for work,” he said.
“The schools have their captains and that’s part of their duty.
“I think it’s great, and the co-operation with the school is tremendous.”
Regional winner Oakley Tarrant holds his Lions Youth of the Year school participation certificate alongside Rochester Lions Club Youth of the Year organiser Hedley Moon.
Photo by
Emily Donohoe
During the impromptu questions, Oakley reflected on the ‘Cool to be Kind’ project he created.
What began as an idea in his school captain speech soon expanded not only to the Rochy Secondary halls, but also to Rochester Primary and St Joseph’s Primary School.
“The Resilience Project... it inspired me,” Oakley said.
“I dropped (the idea) in my school captain application and then the school was really good.
“Once I got school captain, they really pushed for me to do it.”
‘Cool to be Kind’ encourages students to do good deeds and lead with kindness, awarding a Rochester Business Network gift card each term as a prize.
Funding from the community will support the program for three years at the high school and both primary schools in town.
“If they get two of these kindness-related achievements, they get into the draw each week to get an RBN voucher,” Oakley said.
“That way, you don’t have to go out of your way to spend the voucher, and it keeps the money local.
“The funding for it was sourced from the local community, and I managed to get $7000 worth of funding.
“I got too much funding just for this school, so I reached out to the primary schools and (have) now funded each primary school.”
Oakley will travel with his family for the state final, cheered on by the impressed Lions members back home.
“The impromptu questions, especially at club level, nine times out of 10, they’ll only go for a minute, they won’t go for two minutes,” Mr Moon said.
“(Oakley) went for two minutes every time, he found something to talk about that was interesting.”
