High school students from across Dallas-Fort Worth have a new opportunity to speak up and speak out to encourage volunteerism.

Dallas-based national technology nonprofit VolunteerNow will host the first Speak4America speech competition on Saturday, Oct. 5—giving students the chance to use their voices to inspire others to help the community.

Highlighting “tangible improvements they’d like to see in their school or community,” students will present a four-minute “call-to-action” speech at VolunteerNow headquarters, according to the organization.

The top three winners will be awarded cash prizes.

After the competition, student speeches will be published on www.Speak4America.org and on VolunteerNow’s website to promote volunteerism. 

Speak4America is a student-led initiative, spearheaded by a former VolunteerNow intern, Luke Blazek. A speech and debate leader, Blazek is a senior at Cambridge School of Dallas.

Blazek inspired and lead a team to build a community garden at a Dallas homeless residence. That’s how the student found a “powerful purpose” for using his speaking skills “to inspire others to help with real improvement projects” for the community, he said in a statement.

It’s a movement

Now, through Speak4America, others can have the opportunity to use their speaking talents to inspire improvement. In a world of “divisive ranting,” the initiative can give students a “focus to write and perform a constructive/unifying speech,” per its website. That opportunity is something that’s been missing, it says.

Beyond the competition, Speak4America wants to be a community for bringing people together and “tangible volunteer projects.”

Speak4America has partnered with VolunteerNow, the Dallas-based provider of UVOLY.org, a new volunteer-matching platform launched this summer. One of the largest volunteer centers in the country, it aims to be the hub of volunteerism in North Texas. The organization mobilized some 256,000 volunteers who gave 1.6 million hours to 3,500 local nonprofits last year—a $40M economic impact, according to the nonprofit.

Here’s how to participate in the competition

Dallas-Fort Worth high school students can visit www.Speak4America.org for more details and to register. Schools and nonprofits may also submit speech topics for the students to discuss.

Speak4America Speech Competition
Oct. 5, 2019
2 to 5 p.m.
2800 Live Oak St.
Dallas 75204

Go here for more information. 

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