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Rotary Speech Contest Asks Teens Important Questions

photo by provided Addie Brooks wins local speech contest and advances to district level.

photo by provided Michael Davis sharing his speech on how to apply the Four Way Test to water quality in the Champlain Valley.

photo by provided Planning to attend college for political science, Charlebois shared his plans to utilize the 4 Way Test to change how government looks at issues.

photo by provided Rory Patch shared her passion for helping children struck with Krabbe Disease.

Tuesday January 23, 2018

By Cookie Steponaitis

The Rotary Four Way test was created over sixty years ago as a way to help Rotarians affect ethical change in the world and is one of the most quoted set of guiding business principles. The Four Way test was created by Herbert Taylor in Michigan representing the moral beliefs and experiences that guided his life. Taylor was born in 1893, worked his way through college and served in the U.S. Navy Supply Company in World War One. Upon returning to the states, he married and began his working professional life in Oklahoma. Later he moved to Chicago and joined the local Rotary Club in 1925. Taylor was a part of a group from Rotary asked to help revive the Club Aluminum Company that was near bankruptcy. Resigning from his own position and taking a pay cut of 80%, Taylor went to work in the midst of the Depression to bring the company back on its feet.
    As he considered the monumental task in front of him, Taylor wrote a statement of intent that would guide him and the company moving forward. Originally containing seven questions and ending up with four, he showed the statement to his department heads and leaders of four different religious groups. All agreed that the now Four Way Test was a great guide for personal and business life. Moving ahead, Taylor asked the following questions before making any decisions for the company:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
    Club Aluminum’s indebtedness was paid off by 1937 and during the next fifteen years the firm distributed more than one million dollars in dividends to its stockholders. More importantly, the Four Way Test became the Rotary’s defining approach and guide to helping others locally, around the nation and the world providing the basis for decisions of the group bound to this set of principles.
    The Vergennes Rotary Club hosted its local level of the Rotary Speech Contest this past week. Challenged with crafting a three-five minute speech explaining how the Four Way Test could be applied to their lives, teens from Vergennes Union High School discussed issues including self-acceptance and love, the quality of local water systems, the need for empathy and compassion in life and awareness for a childhood disease virtually unknown to the American public but devastating to the family. VUHS students Mason Charlebois, Adelaide Brooks, Michael Davis and Rory Patch took on the challenge and were well received by the Rotarians present. Sophomore Adelaide Brooks won the round and will continue on to the district level in coming weeks. While only one speech and winner advances, the participants represented a set of ideals that are the core of one of the world’s most active civic groups that are being integrated in their generation to be used and applied to situations life holds in store.

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