As part of the program for the Engl

As part of the program for the English Language Campaign, we decided to organize an elocution contest. Not knowing what to do, we consulted our advisor, Mrs. Thambu, and she gave us clear instructions as well as a great deal of encouragement.
The first thing we had to do was to send out invitations to all the schools that we thought might like to participate. We also arranged for judges and managed to get a parent member of the committee of the school Parent-Teacher-Association to donate a trophy.

Everything went as scheduled. Surprisingly for a small town like ours, eight schools agreed to send participants. We wrote back, giving them details of time and place and the points on which the contestants would be judged and all the rules of the competition.

It was, in fact, much harder work than we bargained for. We realized that we had to remind the principal about repairing the public address system. ( We did that at least a dozen times. ) We also had to contact the judges a number of times as none of them would give us an answer till much nearer the date of the competition. Then, two days before the competition, one judge, who had previously said "Definitely", told us that he had to turn us down after all : he had chicken pox. Fortunately, our advisor managed to contact an old school friend of hers who agreed to step in.

Except for these few moments of anxiety, everything can be said to have gone well. The microphones worked beautifully, the contestants all turned up and said their pieces ( some not so beautifully ! ) And, finally, the winner was declared the presented with the trophy.

Did we win the trophy ? Unfortunately, we did not. Our speakers were, in fact, not even placed. But we did excel in terms of organization and initiative. At least, I think so.