Contest Night

Hello Everyone - We had a full house for our Humourous Speech and Table Topics contest on September 17th plus several welcome guests.  They included Corina Simu's children.  Her son, Sebastian, helped with the creation of our new Bolton Banter notice of meeting board.  Thanks Sebastian and we look forward to you joining the club in about 10 years time. 

The theme of contest night, as chosen by chair Laurie Stapleton, was "participation" and the word was "try".  Only by trying and by participating in contests such as this can you learn just what a great experience competing can be, especially in our supportive Toastmasters atmosphere.

Carol Dowell got the ball rolling with her speech, entitled "The Rules".  Carol questioned the rules that society imposes on us and that we accept without question.  What is wrong with pink hair, wearing socks with sandals and carrying a white purse after Labour Day?  According to Carol, absolutely nothing.  Those of you who missed this meeting need to take a look at the pictures of Carol in her glow in the dark pink hair.

Eric Solowka told us about how goats spoiled the new car smell in his recently purchased vehicle in "Troll in Control".  I'm not sure how anyone can get goats into a van but such an incident could only happen to Eric. 

We had five contestants in Table Topics speaking to the phrase "pet peeve".  Everyone has many pet peeves but when you only have seconds before you reach the podium, what pet peeve do you want to talk about? Carol Dowell, Eric Solowka, Brendan Dineen, Pat Burness and Tom Wildfang all told us of their pet peeves.  It seems people are bothered by stop signs, motorists who fail to pull over for emergency vehicles and a recalcitrant pet cat named "peeve".   As you might imagine, there were laughs aplenty this evening.  

Now for the drum roll.  Eric Solowka won first prize in both contests.  Carol Dowell and Pat Burness placed second in the Humourous Speech and Table Topics contest respectively.  Eric, along with Carol and Pat will represent Bolton Banter at the area contest, to be held here at our club on October 8th.  Should either Eric or Pat be unable to compete in the Table Topics contest, third place finisher Tom Wildfang will compete.  Make a point of attending and cheering on our club's contestants.   See you then.

Cheers and regards - Lorraine Van Wagner, Webmaster