Kendall student wins $500 Legion scholarship at oratorical contest

Marisa Hanlon advanced to zone competition

File photo by Tom Rivers – Marisa Hanlon, a junior at Kendall, delivers a speech about the Constitution during the Jan. 8 Orleans County Legislature meeting. Legislature Chairman David Callard is pictured in back listening to Marisa. Her mother Nadine Hanlon is the Legislature clerk. She is pictured at right. Hanlon won the county contest and advanced to the district and then zone levels.

KENDALL – After winning the oratorical contest at Orleans County and advancing past the district level competition, a Kendall student’s journey ended on Saturday in the American Legion’s annual competition.

Marisa Hanlon won a $500 scholarship after making it to the zone competition. The top two finishers from five zones in the state advance to the finals in Albany next month.

Hanlon was the only public school student in the zone competition in Mount Morris. The other participants all had speech coaches.

Marisa recited her memorized speech “A Perfect Union” on Saturday and also had to be prepared to give a 3- to 5-minute speech on a random Constitutional amendment. The amendment chosen was the 1st Amendment – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Marisa was joined in Mount Morris by Charles Eberhardt, her escort from the American Legion. He is the commander of the Jewell Buckman Post 529 in Holley.

She thanked her Kendall social studies teacher, Mr. Petrosino, who helped her to prepare for the competition. Marisa also credited the Kendall school district for encouraging students to compete in the contest.