The award-winning Pinecrest Speech and Debate Team recently received a $500 donation from the Seven Lakes Law Firm of Gorenflo Bierbaum & Campbell, PLLC.

Receiving the donation on behalf of the Speech and Debate Team were President Meredith Potter and Treasurer Patrick Sazama. Both are seniors. Potter will be going to Yale this fall, and Sazama will be attending N.C. State.

The check was presented by attorney Bob Bierbaum at the March 26 open house for the law firm.

According to Libby Carter, Pinecrest High English teacher and head coach of the Pinecrest Speech and Debate Team, the donations were used to help defray costs for Potter and her debate partner, Caleb Frye, to travel to Birmingham, Ala., to defend their title at the 2009 championship.

Potter and Frye are the current national champions in Public Forum Debate, having won the title at the NFL National Championship last summer in Las Vegas.

The Pinecrest Debate Team is completing one of its most successful years ever as the team claimed its second consecutive district title for Tar Heel East District. Ten students were named district champions and have earned the right also to compete in the National Championship.

In addition to Potter and Frye in Public Forum Debate, competitors headed to Alabama included Josephine Yurcaba in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Ben Berk in Congressional Debate, Kyle Ocheltree and Hunter Ocheltree in Duo Interpretation, Emily Brownback and Evan Sherwood in Duo Interpretation, Jenny Questell in Humorous Interpretation, and Ben Denton in Extemporaneous Speaking.

The Pinecrest team competed in the North Carolina State Championship in April, gaining the fourth place team trophy. Ben Berk was named state champion in Congressional Debate and Hunter Ocheltree and Kyle Ocheltree took the state championship in Duo Interpretation.