Dungannon & South Tyrone Borough Council recently hosted the local heats of Environmental Youth Speak 2012.  Environmental Youth Speak is a public speaking competition which has been running for 14 years and is organised by the three Northern Ireland waste management groups. It is the largest environmental public speaking event for schools in Northern Ireland and its main aim is to get school children thinking seriously about environmental issues.

This year as part of the RSD’s new ECO school drive, we entered two Year 9 students Hannah Weir and Zara Farmer in the senior section, speaking on “WEEE Waste big problem. What can we do? (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)”. Both girls where highly praised by the council on the quality and delivery of their speeches, with Hannah wining the heat and being selected to represent the council at the Northern Ireland finals which took place on Thursday 26^th April at Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey Borough Council Offices.

On that day Hannah presented her speech again, along with six other competitors in her age group, in front of three judges. The competition was extremely high and unfortunately Hannah wasn’t chosen as the winner of her group, but she did get to meet and have her photograph taken with Pete Snodden, Cool FM, who presented her with her certificate and prize.