Bayshore Student Wins Scholarship at SAR Statewide Public Speaking Contest

SARASOTA -- Bayshore High's Braden Causey won first place at the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) statewide Rumbaugh Oration Competition, last Friday at the Ramada Gateway Hotel in Kissimmee. The contest was open to all Florida high school students through their school's History and English departments.

From Left:  Peter Douglas, Dr. Randy Moody, Carl Hoffman, Braden Causey, Charles Riegle

Causey, a sophomore and member of the Bayshore girl's varsity basketball team, won the area competition last November to advance. She was recognized by the SAR (Saramana Chapter) as their winner in a presentation given during an SAR regular monthly meeting at the Holiday Inn on Lido Key in Sarasota.   

In Kissimmee, Ms. Causey reprised her original oration entitled "Words to Live by," a treatise of the First Amendment to our Constitution.  Braden was declared the winner and received, in addition to a Medallion Award, about $1,200 in Scholarship money from FLSSAR and its Ladies Auxiliary, as well as an invitation to again give her presentation as the Florida representative at the National Society's annual summer convention this July in Winston Salem, N.C.

Ms. Causey was obliged to recite her "Words to Live by" at the evening banquet and received a standing ovation from the 80 plus in attendance. She was accompanied to the Kissimmee event by her grandparents, Jim and Barb Grace of Dade City, Florida. When asked about her unusual given name, Braden said it was a mere coincidence that she now lives in Bradenton, Florida.

Braden is 16 and in addition to basketball, she also plays softball, has been a cheerleader, a member of the Nu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society, Bayshore Student Government, and can converse in American Sign Language (ASL). One of her other favorite extracurricular activities is participating in Breast Cancer walks.