Here is a list of some of our members who have chosen to make their profiles public.

Let the Contests Begin!

     Mrs. Don Emon had passed on to our club president at the time, Karen Alexander, a trophy of Don's, at his passing.  Karen passed on herself before she could pass this on to our notable champion speaker of that year in table topics, Katie Dean in 2021.  Katie won for our club, our area, and our division, and then she represented us at the highest level, that of the district.

     Don was a rocket scientist, truly, and teacher, and as a retiree he came to us at Lake Pointe for close to two years, and then, briefly, at Pardee.  He battled cancer valiantly, and finally, lost.  He remained, to the end an inspiration. He began each speech, triumphantly, "Toastmasters!" 

Don and his wife here get an embrace from Toastmaster Melinda Lowrance.

It is hoped the tradition of awarding

a Don Emon trophy can at long last begin!

Before Covid, In-Person Area and Above Contests Inspired!

 In the District Spring International/Inspirational Contest of 2018, First-place State Winner Kevin Johnson was not a paid professional speaker. He was trained to give counseling to those with a troubled past like himself. He opened in wearing a boxing glove and called audience members “fellow combatants.” He told of having a learning disability in reading, being put in a special class, having others handing out insults, and of his being bullied.

    He’d gone to drugs and alcohol to alleviate the pain, been taught by a friend to go sober, taken up boxing, and gone two rounds with a four-time toughman contest-winner. Hiding behind his two gloves had defined his whole life of being guarded and being beaten. Then in a defining moment he dropped his guard to try to risk everything to deliver a haymaker in the third round. It’d caused the champion to stagger before “he beat the heck out of me.” He felt a loser and dejected, but as he left the gym, the champion praised him and took him under his wing. He trained him to harness his power and not be afraid to go all out and lose the life he had. He went on to get a 4.0 on the way to his counseling degree. His speech was from the heart, exposed his vulnerability, and ended up being the Haymaker of the contest.

Contests are a key way to advance with exemplary techniques and content

      Tucker Cox, a veteran FS Toastmaster who got started in a club in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct. 3, 2015 won second place in the Evaluation category with an insightful, motivating evaluation of the test speaker. The top two finishers in the area contests earned the right to advance to the division contest.  Renee called contestants “the sparkle” of Toastmasters.  Tuck said this particular contest “took my breath away” because the quality was “out of this world.”

      Jennifer Bauer won in both the area and the division by evaluating in just three areas:  what she saw, what she heard, and what she felt.  Grows were given by all evaluators, but the overall aim was to encourage the speaker with what to keep and what to improve for a future speech.  Each evaluator had five minutes to take notes and formulate a response.

       Stan Coss won at the area level in 2016 for the humor contest with an election year parody for which the whistle was an important ingredient.  Judy Groff was the test speaker in the evaluation contest for which shoes were an important feature.

The top two speakers in the humorous speech contest in 2015 are what are focused on here.  Each centered on a collection of stories from the speaker’s experience.  Unfortunately, the humor category was stripped away in 2018 before it was briefly revived for a time during Covid on Zoom only.

      In first place was Tres Magner speaking on “Speed.”  Tres spoke on a cross country race and a swim team heat from high school.  He used self-deprecating humor on refusing to wear a speedo and doing a flip turn to contrast himself with his grandfather that went to UNC-Ch and made a reputation as “Flash” on the football team and in the NFL.  Tres was known at UNC-Ch as “Turtle.”  His lesson was to get in the race and finish.  “Don’t worry about coming in last,” he said.  “I’ve got your back!”  Tres has probably been quick on his feet in using humor even before high school; by college he said (in the post interview) that one of his achievements was being a cheerleader before 20,000 fans.

      Ryan Cox was last year’s Division winner that placed second this year to Prentice Singleton in the area contest.  Ryan (18 months) and Prentice (nine months) are both very talented but relatively new to Toastmasters.  In his “Paradox of Parenting” speech, Ryan made major revisions from the Area speech that stepped him up past Prentice and some new, equally tough competitors in the Division.  For one, he plugged in humorous references to the test speaker and two speakers in the area contest that had also advanced.  The impromptu nature and relevance was winsome.  He said in the post-interview that he’d also restored some of the heart from earlier drafts of his speech, tender aspects he’d cut in favor of laughs that arose from showing brattiness rather than lovable warmth from his daughter.

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