Peddie students gathered in the Geiger-Reeves Theater to hear their fellow classmates speak for the 112th annual J. Walter Reeves Speaking Contest on April 7.

First created to honor Byram Winters and Carl Geiger who were once teachers at Peddie, the Reeves Contest welcomes students who are interested in speech or simply want to speak their mind.

This year, a record number of participants entered the contest to speak about their thoughts to the rest of the community. Ranging from speeches about animal rights to politics to the effects of social media, the contest allowed the participants and the audience to think about topics in a different light.

“The speaking contest dates to 1891 when Winters, Class of 1883, funded a prize for the winner. After Winters’s death, the contest was renamed the J. Walter Reeves Speaking Contest. When the school auditorium was renovated in 1960, he and fellow teacher Carl Geiger were honored when the building was dedicated as Geiger-Reeves Hall,” Jay Jaski, director of the Reeves Speaking Contest, said.

“I wanted to do the Reeves contest before I graduated, because it’s a really cool opportunity to express something meaningful to the Peddie community. It was a great experience and I’m grateful for Mr. Jaski’s help,” David Tattoni ’16, the first place winner of the contest, said.

Second place in the contest was awarded to Vivian Sun ’18 and freshman Emma Morin received third place. Ten contestants participated in the final round.

“I’m glad I had the opportunity to participate in the contest. It was a relatively new experience for me, and I’m thankful that I was able to express my beliefs to the Peddie community,” Kylie Heering ’19 said. “I encourage everyone to participate in the contest at some point in their time at Peddie.”

Although it took many months for the contestants to prepare their speeches for the event, everyone agreed that the hard work was worth it.

“The process of writing, revising and practicing my speech was long and slightly strenuous, but being able to deliver a message that I really cared about in front of my friends, family and the whole Peddie community made the entire process all worth it,” Kelly Coyle ’16 said.

When asked about the future, Jaski hopes that the Reeves Contest will continue to be a part of the Peddie community, so students can continue to express themselves through speech.

“My hope is that the contestants and the audience will always look to the Reeves Contest as the ultimate public forum, a place of exchanging ideas, no matter how disparate, for the betterment of the speaker and those he or she is speaking to,” Jaski said. “This year’s group truly made the commitment to voice what was in their hearts and minds [and] to speak eloquently but also bluntly. The contest is without a doubt one of Peddie’s greatest traditions,”