ORR DECA club celebrates after regional competition
Jan 29, 2021
The ORR DECA club poses in a diamond and flashes the DECA symbol. Photos by: Aidan Pollard
Mason Tucker on the keys as students file into the cafeteria for the ceremony.
DECA Co-President Eddie Gonet organizes the diamond photo.
Gonet directs students how to come up and receive their awards in a way that maintains social distance.
Some students attended the ceremony remotely.
Club members received their awards from students in gloves.
After spending much of their season in remote meetings, the Old Rochester Regional High School DECA club was able to hold an awards ceremony following its regional competition in person and on campus.
At the ceremony, the business-focused club gave out 93 trophies and medals to members and celebrated its participation at the regional competition.
“This year, we had very little trouble, if any at all getting the students ready for the competitions and it all worked out great,” Club Board Member David Diata said. “We had a majority of our students placed in their category, and that even included the first year students and the Junior High kids as well!”
This year’s regional competition saw 34 ORRHS students perform well enough to make the state competition — which will happen later this month. Of the state qualifiers, Club Co-Presidents Eddie Gonet and Theodore Carrol took first place in their events, alongside club members Theo Jacobson, Emily DellaCioppa, Sarah Wyman, Kinsley Trout, Tiago Duarte, Hannah Furtado and Taylor Green.
“The performance we had at this competition was amazing,” Gonet said in a speech to the club.
Last year, which was the first year of the DECA club, Gonet said that 17 members made it to the state-level competition.
“There were just no words to describe how excited we were,” he said.
He added that it was especially impressive that the club — coming from a school with no business classes — was able to keep up with many schools at the regional competition who did.
“We must be doing something right at club meetings,” the co-president said.
After the states comes the national competition, which Gonet and Carrol qualified for last year — but were ultimately canceled due to covid.
Gonet said that he’s hopeful both he and other members will qualify for nationals this year.
Some members, including Diata, were invited to the International Career Development Conference in Tennessee last year, which was also canceled due to covid.
Now, Diata said he’s looking forward to whatever the year may bring — virtually or in person.
