The Port Hardy Toastmasters held their annual speech competition on March 18 at North Island College.
Both speeches brought an interested hush to the room when presented. Port Hardy Toastmaster’s President Brian Scott said the event is a highlight for the club, whose members meet weekly to build both public speaking as well as leadership skills.
Scott is not only the president of the Port Hardy Toastermasters club, he is also the Area 14 Governor, which means he oversees five other clubs.
“I think that we are a very positive and friendly environment and we are willing to teach. We have a lot of people who are strong speakers and strong leaders, and we hope we can bring these skills to those who attend,” said Scott.
The two speeches presented were lively and diverse, one telling of a person’s journey to realizing they had seen one of the loves of their life and seen pass away, and the other about the saucy history of wine and society.
The Toastmasters speech format involves a five to seven-minute-long speech, with marks earned for clarity, audience engagement and storytelling.
Toastmaster Garth Holden’s speech called, ‘Being in Love with Pat’ won the competition, and will allow him to compete at the next level of competition in Courtenay, B.C.
“I worked on it for about three weeks. My speech was more of a performance piece. I didn’t write it down on paper. I rehearsed it a number of times with an egg timer. I then ran through it a bunch of times to see what portions I could keep in, what portions I had to take out.”
Holden said he doesn’t compete for anything other than to improve his public speaking abilities, although he will attend the March 21 competition in Courtenay.