The four candidates, all of whom have just started year 12, Heritage Christian School’s Chelsea Connell and St Columba Anglican School’s Naomi Kallmier, Youssef Youssef and Jack Nerthery competed for both the the Lion Youth of the Year Quest and the public speaking title.

The overall Lions Youth of the Year was taken out by Youssef Youssef and the public speaking competition was won by Chelsea Connell for her passionate speech about the foster care system.

“It still feels surreal, I don’t think me winning will sink in for a while,” Youssef said.

“For the last few weeks I have really focused on my speech and prepared the best I could and the competition was really tight, so I honestly didn’t think I would win after listening to the other speeches.

“But I knew there would be stiff competition, and that drove me to try my best,” he said.

The best part of the night Youssef said was the impromptu questions.

“I really enjoyed the impromptu questions because I was asked about real world issues and you had to think on your feet.

“It has definitely been a learning process and I am excited for the next step,” he said.

In her prepared speech Chelsea Connell spoke about the foster care system.

“It all came together at the last minute, and I feel really great and honoured to have won the public speaking competition.

“It was a mad rush to the end and I ended up writing my speech the night before, but I think I work well under pressure and in the end I won, which was really great,” she said.

The competition was split into two different sections, first the interview part which was completed on Sunday (November 12) and the public speaking part which consisted of both impromptu questions and a prepared speech, and with the calibre of candidates, Chief judge John Channon said it was a hard decision for the judges to make up their minds.

“I have worked with children for over 35 years, and the four candidates were excellent and among the best I have seen, each with their own great qualities.

“The interview process was the biggest part where we are judges asked questions on the candidates CV and about the world around them at a local, state and national level to gauge their general knowledge before listening to them speak in front of a crowd,” Mr Channon said.

As part of the preparation process, Mr Channon said the candidates had to work on their confidence.

“Going through the Youth of the Year program the students develop skills in self confidence and are required to examine the world around them. You can tell the students who put a lot of effort in, because they exceed the judges expectations,” he said.

Mal Murray Port Macquarie Tacking Point Lions Youth of the Year chairman said the competition was a chance for young people to develop as community minded people.

“The important part of Youth of the Year Quest is that young people put their best foot forward, and all four candidates stood up in front of the crowd and put their best foot forward delivering engaging speeches,” Mr Murray said.

“Our motto is ‘Together we Serve’ and the idea is that we build young people up to be community minded and want to help others for the sheer satisfaction of knowing you have helped someone else,” he said.

“I want to thank our generous sponsors who gave donations for the raffle including the Hastings District Flying Club, Port Macquarie Car Wash, Port City Bowling Club and all the restaurants who gave us vouchers.”

On the night the raffle was won by M Kallmier, Janice Hogan and Lauren Franey.