Everyone Was On Board!

Friday night’s Speech Evaluation Contest, WOW; it was obvious that the contestants as well as the test speaker “Packed Their Bags”!

Our Toastmaster for the Speech Evaluation Contest, Travis Farral of Energizers Toastmasters Club, started our contest off in great form by briefing the crowd and then welcoming our Test Speaker to the stage so our contestants would have someone to evaluate.

Travis Farral and Elaine Scholly

Our Test Speaker Elaine Scholly (Big D Toastmasters, District 50) enlightened us with her speech, “What Do We See”, which gave us an insight into the world behind the advertisements we see. Her catchy and motivating phrase, Plan, Organize and Practice or as she put it POP will be remembered as will her “swirl and curl”.

We had six exceptional evaluators, one from each of the District 25 Divisions.  They shared what they felt were the speakers strengths as well as a few suggestions that they felt would improve her presentation.

The Evaluation Contest winners First place: Ogewu Agbese of LM AeroSpeakers Club Second place: Patricia Quick of ARBOR Toastmasters Third place: Cheryl Stanton of KellerCommunicators Club. Other competitors were Tom Pierce of Southlake Club, Diana Pittman of Speakers Exchange, and Manhal Shukayr of Lakeside Club.

Cheryl, Ogewu, and Pat

Saturday’s laughs took off with our Toastmaster for the contest, DJ Swinyar of Mansfield Sunrise Toastmasters. DJ knew what our contestants would be feeling as he was the fall 2012 winner of the Humorous Speech contest. DJ started us off with a little bit of Aggie humor and the laughter continued from there.  

Sonya Rundles, of Shining Stars Club, started us off with “Corporate Policies” and as if they had planned it, was followed by Brianna Bowman, of Waco Early Birds Club, “I am a Victim”. Both were related to the work place and had the crowd rolling. David Watkins, of Keller Communicators Club, had us all wanting to run out and buy a new product with his speech “Modern Miracle of Speakology”. Jena Perkins, of Ryan Plaza Toastmasters, took us fishing with her and her father with “You Should Have Been Here Yesterday”. Seth Hemphill, of VHA Toastmasters, let us know that it is not always good to do the lottery dance on April 1st with his “The Lottery Celebration”. Lastly but certainly not least Laura Stewart, of Afterburners Club and the 2nd place 2012 Humorous Speech Contest, let us know that “Love Means ALWAYS Having to Say You’re Sorry”.

Humorous Speech Contest winners First place: Laura Stewart (Afterburners Club)  Second place:  Sonya Rundles (Shining Stars Club)  Third place:  Brianna Bowman (Waco – Early Birds Club)

Start thinking about the Tall Tales and International Speech contests this spring! It’ll be time before you know it! See you there!

Felicia Christian
District 25
Contest Quality Chair