April 24th meeting

The Toastmaster of the day was Brian, who talked about the 4H program, as this week the 4H kids practiced their speeches. Because of time constraints and technical issues, there was no general evaluation for the day.
The first speaker, Kt spoke about Soul Surfer, which is a movie and a book that came out in 2011. She talked about how Bethany loved to surf, and even was sponsored to surf before the shark attack in 2003. Her arm was severed by a tiger shark, and she lost over 60% of her blood by the time that she got to the hospital. One month after the attack, Bethany got back in the water and today she is back to surfing and even competing. Dave was Kt's evaluator, who said that she had a great speech that was really well organized. He said that she did a great job telling the story, and giving us the emotion in the story. One thing he did suggest was to project to the back of the room so that everyone can for sure hear.
The second speaker of the day was L, who talked to us about bullying. She said that her speech is dedicated in the memory of her 13 year old cousin who died by suicide after being a victim of bullying. There are several types of bullying, she said, from cyber bullying to verbal and physical bullying. According to stopbullying.gov, bullying is both requires an imbalance of power and repetition. She talked about how if you are being cyber bullied, you need to report them to the website administration, and block the people. If there is still bullying happening, delete your account. For those on the sidelines, stand up to the bully and look for those who could be vulnerable. Laurie was L's evaluator, who said she did a great job conveying her message, and bringing people into her story. Laurie said she did a great job with the technical glitches, and had good eye contact.
Our third speaker was B, who talked about her guinea pigs. She had a poster with a picture of her guinea pig on it to show people who she was talking about. The first thing she did was explain how she cares for them, by feeding them hay and water. B said she likes to watch her guinea pigs sleep and walk around. Everyone complimented her on being brave and speaking in front of us.
For our second to last speaker, Ka, her speech was called Trauma Bonds. She started her speech by telling a story of two sisters who grew up in an abusive and drug filled home. The older sister would steal food for herself and her sister to keep them alive. The two sisters then were bonded through this trauma. At the end of her speech she quoted psalms 71: 14 "But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more."
Dave was our last speaker of the day, who did a practice run through of his speech Half the Man I Used to Be. To start his speech he told us that he had got rid of a person and he is glad he did.  Telling about his transformation, Dave started at the beginning with being diagnosed with depression after Vietnam. Later he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. To make himself feel better, he would eat, but it progressively took more and more food to give him comfort. After gaining weight, and becoming over 400 pounds, he realized he needed to do something about his painful hip. The doctor said he would need to lose 200 pounds before he could safely do the operation and recovery. By 450 pounds, Dave had a heart attack and had a lot of time to think about what he had been doing with his life, to realize that he was trying to commit suicide by knife and fork. Once he had lost 30 pounds, the weight loss surgeon agreed to do the procedure, and with the help of a dietitian, Dave was on his way to getting his hip replaced. Today, Dave is half the man he used to be and is able to shed his past as he symbolically steps out of the clothes that he wore at 450 pounds, to emerge a new Dave.
With a round robin evaluation, one of our guests, Estelle, said that she was very inspired by his speech, and how he was able to go through that journey. Kt said that she really enjoyed the joke at the beginning of the speech, and L said that she liked how he was engaging with the audience. Another guest, Liz, said it was shocking to see him take off the clothes he wore.