Hilty Wins God, Flag, and Country Oratory Program for the Second Year

PHILO, OH – A local Junior High School student won a national award for the second time.

Olivia Hilty, a 7th Grader at Philo Junior High School, has participated in the God, Flag, and Country Oratory Program, sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, for the last two years.

Both years she has participated, Hilty has won top honors in the regional and statewide competitions to advance to the national finals.

She talked about the requirements and what she based her speech around for this year’s competition.

“It was a speech and you couldn’t go over 3 minutes, you could choose between God, Flag, or Country, but I went for all three of them,” Hilty said. “One of the main things I focused on was the Revolutionary War and how God was with us through and how we were fighting to keep our flag up, and how we are always fighting for our Country.”

Hilty said it came as a surprise to her when she won the competition last year but felt more confident in preparing this year’s speech.

“Last year’s speech, one of the main things was, I was really nervous and I had a bunch of help writing my speech because I didn’t know where to start,” Hilty said. “But this year I was way more confident, I could write my own speech, and I think overall just the way I presented it really grew [from last year.]”

Hilty said she’s already hard at work brainstorming new ideas for this year’s God, Flag, and Country Program.