2017 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest!

Today was our humorous speech contest for our club. We would like to welcome our guests, Julia, Seanette, and Shannon! Lee was the Toastmaster of the day who introduced the rules of the contest, and explained how it would work. To begin the meeting, he told us that Avital and Christa would draw to see who would speak first, and then the contestants in table topics would draw next.
Avital was the first speaker of the day. She told us about her trip to India 10 years ago, where they invited her to dance. During that trip, Avital was asked to teach a group of children and adults to dance. After going through several groups of people to try and find her a place to teach, and several translations later, Avital was given a room to choreograph her dance with rows of people watching her. When Avital explained that she had not made the dance yet, they responded then make it, so she took some of the dances that she had already done and modified them. After weeks of practice, they performed their dance in front of thousands.
Christa was the second speaker of the day, who talked about her experience in Alaska where she lost her only pair of pants. Her crew was in their fifties and had worked together for decades, making foul play unlikely when she lost her pants. During her week on the boat she had be covered in fish blood and guts making wearing her work clothes back on the plane nearly impossible. She looked around the small galley kitchen, her bunks, and everywhere else she could think but her pants were nowhere to be found. Then she thought... "Did I wear my pants home from the bar last night?" but then decided she had to have worn them home because to get back on the boat, Christa would have had to climb over the rail. In the end, the captain gave her a pair of his work pants to wear home, grease stains, holes and all.
For the table topics contest, Christa went first. The Table Topic contest question was September 11th, never forget- Where were you on September 11th, 2001? Christa talked about how she was on a boat when the towers were attacked, and they did not come back to town for several days. All they had were radios to find out what was happened. When she finally got to a hotel, no one else wanted to listen to what happened. Brian N went second, and talked about how he was on a business trip in Seattle. When he turned on the TV, he could not believe what was happening. As a veteran, he was sickened that we were being attacked after desert storm. He talked about coming home, and explaining to his youngest daughter that there were planes in the sky, but they were good planes like what grandpa worked with in the air force that were there to protect us. Brian H talked about how he was in a meeting recently at the fire department, and was amazed at how different the emergency response works now after the attacks on September 11th. Laurie was the last contestant, who said that a week after 9/11 was her grandfather's celebration of life. Her parents were trying to fly out to meet everyone for the funeral, but all flights were grounded due to the attacks that day. Eventually they decided to drive to the funeral instead, and Laurie said that despite all of the chaos and tragedy, everyone did make it.
Christa took first place in the speech contest, and Avital placed second.
For the Table Topics contest, Christa took first place, and Brian N came in second.