Ted Everingham proudly introduced his granddaughter, Melanie Taylor, the winner of the Distinguished Young Woman of Michigan 2018, as the guest speaker at the Aug. 16 evening meeting of Rotary of Grosse Pointe at The War Memorial.

 
Melanie will be attending her senior year at Birmingham Seaholm and will be the president of the Mock Trial team and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.  
These extracurricular activities helped when she participated in the DYW competition as it, along with her transcript was included in her scoring.  The other components were self-expression (although an accomplished dancer, Melanie read a poem she had written), an on-stage interview, and fitness/health which consisted of 7-10 minute aerobics.
One of Melanie’s favorite parts of being a Distinguished Young Women participant is the Be Your Best Self program.  In this, she is able to reach out and encourage young people to be healthy, be involved, be studious, be ambitious, and be responsible.
Melanie will compete in a national competition in 2018, where she will dance instead of reading poetry.  We wish her the best of luck.
(Photo by John Minnis