Kaufman County teen readying for semi-final speech competition

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

November 14, 2002 -- Garrett Moore of Forney recently earned a $1,500 scholarship in the Texas Farm Bureau's Free Enterprise Speech district competition.

Moore, a 17-year-old home-schooled student, earned the first place win on the district level, and is now preparing to take his speech to the semi-final competition in Corpus Christi on Dec. 7.

"I'll be saying my speech about a hundred times before then," he said on Nov. 6. "I'll put in a lot of rehearsal time and look it over some more."

In the district competition, Moore's speech included his thoughts that "Free Enterprise recognizes that individuals are capable of providing for themselves and arranging their own economic activities - not the federal government. By being responsible for our own actions, we can overcome difficulties in life. We cannot be fully independent if we are not held responsible for managing our personal lives."

This was the first time for Moore to enter the speech contest. In preparation of the contest, Moore noted he had to research the "free enterprise" topic and concluded "it is very important that people have the right to own their own property and to do with it as they wish as long as it does not harm others."

The 17-year-old explained his decision to enter the speech contest came after attending Farm Bureau's five-day "Citizenship Camp" in San Angelo. Moore thought the camp would involve learning about community service, "but it was a whole other ballpark." The camp targeted a "free enterprise" agenda which helped Moore understand the topic.

"By going to the camp, I have the opportunity come back as a junior counselor," he explained, "so as part of that, I had to write an essay or do the speech."

The speech competition offered the scholarship funds, something that influenced his decision to enter.

Moore plans to use the scholarship to help fund his higher education. His current plans are to attend Eastfield College in Mesquite for the basic college courses. Eventually, he plans to major in business and maybe, because he has many achievements in Tae Kwan Do, open his own martial arts school.

Garrett's win was no surprise for Carrie Sharp, Kaufman County Extension Agent - 4-H. "He is just an extraordinary youth," she said. "Garrett is one of our greatest 4-H ambassadors in the county. He leads many of the community service and other projects. ... He is the type of kid that makes working in the (4-H) organization a joy."

Sharp pointed out that Moore also has a "first time" win when he entered the 4-H Sport Fishing Recordbook competition. "He won first in state with the recordbook, and it was the first time he'd done a recordbook."