Five strong speeches helped to lower the curtain on summer for the Seattle Sunrise Toastmaster club this past Saturday during its monthly “Speechathon.”
Opening the meeting was one of the group’s newest members, Daniel Robins. Daniel used “Path to Self-Improvement,” his Icebreaker speech, to talk about his own, long journey to self-improvement. It was a journey that started in high school, passed through a near bout with the law, and continues to this day.
Marti MacEwan, addressing Toastmaster’s “Persuade with Power” project, took her seven minutes to convince club members and guests that they each had the power to change the trajectories of their lives. Her speech, which was titled “Down with Shame,” was informed by Marti’s many years of experience as a therapist.
Little did any of us know that for at least a few swashbuckling souls in the world, this past Friday was “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” To honor that date, Katey Noonan educated us all on a brief history of pirates with her “It’s a Tough Life Being a Pirate.”
Junlei Chen was joined by special guest Autumn Ta for her first Advanced Communication Project, “Conversing with Ease.” Junlei offered us four rules of how to engage in conversation with strangers, which were illustrated by an improvised on-stage conversation that she had with Autumn.
Hockey, with a cameo mention of hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr, was the subject of Brian Hudnall’s speech, “Rediscovering My Passion.” After his knees could no longer take the abuse that the sport threw at them during his high school years, Brian thought he had hung up his skates for the last time. But little did he know that years later, the simple act of getting back on the ice again would reignite his love for the game and remind him why he was so passionate about the sport growing up.
Scott Champion walked away with the “Best Evaluator” ribbon for his general evaluation of the meeting.
The next meeting for Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters will be on Saturday, September 27.
As always, our doors are wide open for the curious, so please join us for what always promises to be yet another enlightening and inspirational gathering of genial Toastmasters.
