There’s a wonderful benefit I receive as an editor with The Oakland Press.

Every year for the past 17 I’ve represented the newspaper as one of three judges at the annual Auburn Hills Morning Optimist Club Oratorical Contest.

The competition is fascinating and impressive as boys and girls, generally in grades 7-12, give speeches before fellow contestants, judges and an audience of parents and Optimist Club members. Each year the topic is different. This year's was "If I were the leader of the free world the first issue I would address would be...." I have yet to judge a year when all of the youngsters weren’t competitive, making the selection of a winner very difficult.

Eight boys competed last week, March 10, and eight girls went head to head this past Thursday. The top-three winners are given medals with the youth who finished first moving on to the regional contest.

This is not an easy competition. It takes a lot of courage for these young people to get up and give a speech that is not only logical and makes a point but also presented with various emotional innuendoes and nuances. The more skilled a contestant is at the latter, the better are his or her chances of winning the local contest and moving on to higher levels.

But you have to be proud of all the young people for just standing up before an audience and giving their speech. They are setting the stage for personal success later in the life. They are taking on a challenge — in this case speaking before a group of people — and they are winners by the mere fact they did it.

The first time I served as a judge was in 1994, when my boss asked me to take his place because he had to back out due to another commitment. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into but it didn’t take long to realize how honored I was to be associated with the contest.

From a longevity standpoint, my 17 years is soundly eclipsed by another judge, George Cartsonis, who has been serving as a representative from Oakland Community College for 27 years. This year’s third judge was Judy Martin, of Oakland University.

Over the years, I realized that as judges, we weren’t doing too bad a job. Many of those who we selected as local winners went on and did well in the advanced competition. In fact, last year’s girl winner, Malanie Grant, won the regional contest in Southfield and took top honors at the state level. Besides the wonderful experience, Malanie also brought home a $2500 scholarship.

I've learned a lot serving as a judge. I have been fortunate to realize we have many good young people who will be growing into very solid citizens. They will be conscientious about their environment,their careers and their communities.

Because the Optimist Club is a morning group, the competition begins at 7:30 a.m. I have to admit at first, I wasn’t real excited about starting my day at that early hour. But I soon realized it’s not a hardship. Besides, the Optimists provide a very tasty continental breakfast — and great company to enjoy it!

So, you might ask, what does this have to do with the Opinion Page? Well, in my opinion, our society could use more groups like the Optimist Club and more competitions like the oratory contest.