Annandale Rotary Club presents awards to AHS students
Annandale High School senior Lily Rumpf won first place in the Annandale Rotary Club’s speech contest and also made it to the Northern Virginia finals.
Violinist Nattha Poolchuay won first prize in the music contest. Jennifer Cruz Cardona was the second-place winner, Ian Fuller came in third, and Madeleine Arias got honorable mention.
The Annandale Rotary Club presented the awards on April 27 at Annandale High School.
Annandale Principal Shawn DeRose helped ensure an outstanding turnout for the competitions. Janine Labak of the Annandale Toastmasters Club coached the speech contestants, who were asked to speak to the theme “United for Good.”
Both contests offer cash prizes of $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $150 for third place.
“These contests are among the best things that Rotary does,” said Annandale Rotary Club President Jim Holcombe. “They cement our ties with Annandale High School. This is particularly important to me, because Shawn DeRose is my former boss. He was great then and even better now.”
DeRose was an assistant principal at Justice High School when Holcombe had a second career there as a history teacher.
Holcombe has been associated with the Rotary speech contest since 2000, when he was the sponsor of a Rotary Interact Club for youths.
Rotary Clubs should keep in touch with former students, he said, noting that one of the contestants in 2000, Alif Brahim, was one of the music contest judges this year. Alif is also a former Rotary Club president.
After handing out the awards, Holcombe thanked an “army of logistical supporters who made these contests possible”:
- Rotary Youth Chair Cheri Mae, contest chair Holly Graf, and Assistant Governor Polly Rosenstein.
- Judges Ted Hussar, Alif Brahim, Marty Mandelberg, Diane Fernbacher, Janine Labak, and Jim Holcombe.
- Annandale High School Principal Shawn DeRose, Student Activities Director Brandon Sutphin, Interact sponsor Laura Wells, and the AHS staff support team (Jewad Abdulhadi, Jennifer Buchanan, Jocelyn Santos, and Nashita Zaman.
- AHS music teachers Annie Ray, Patrick Vaugh, and Zachary Wadsworth.
- And special kudos to Jen Cory for gathering all of the applications together during the busiest time of the year.