The Toastmasters鈥� event at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) was a very good event with lots of people who showed up to practise their public speaking skills.
The event had three speakers who shared their stories with the attendees. The speakers鈥� topics ranged from having a new baby to near death experiences.
Alf Tide told a story from the early 1980s, when he took his Ford four-wheel drive vehicle and put it and himself up against Mother Nature, trying to get to a beautiful fishing spot in a very remote northern part of the province.
The one road that went to the lake could only be driven on by shovelling snow to make room for the wheels of the truck all the way to the lake. The engine bay eventually got filled with snow and the truck was rendered inoperable. Tide cleaned out sensitive components of the engine that had taken on water and fortunately the truck ran again.
Had it not, he and his wife would have been stranded in the middle of the winter in a very remote and rural part of the province.
Desmond Bilsky, who played a large role in getting the Toastmasters event into the public eye by having the event at the EAGM, was very happy with how the night turned out.
Bilsky mentioned that the normal Toastmasters events have really strict guidelines and rules, and he wanted to do something different this time to get people involved.
鈥淚 think the night has turned out well,鈥� said Bilsky. 鈥淚 am very happy with the turnout. I thought this event was going to be friends and family of Toastmasters but we have had a lot of people come out.鈥�
鈥淭hey (Toastmasters meetings) don鈥檛 allow beer drinking, they don鈥檛 allow swearing and a whole host of other things that happened here tonight you don鈥檛 normally see at a regular Toastmasters event. This event is for sure different but I can see people are really liking this and the format we have decided upon for tonight.鈥�
Bilsky said it can be hard for a small club in a small city to get people go join, but he and others who help organize Toastmasters events were confident that having a more casual set up would get people involved and let them have a good time.
鈥淔or sure we are going to be doing this again in the fall and we hope to get even more people out. If we can get people interested in Toastmasters, we are doing the right thing.鈥�
Estevan Toastmasters Club treasurer Lynn Chipley told a story about her son, who was severely burned in an accident no more than a few weeks before his wedding.
Chipley didn鈥檛 want to release the name of her son to the media or the public at the event, because he still carries the scars from what happened, which was an accident not necessarily of the unavoidable type.
He was to be married and came to Saskatchewan with his whole family to celebrate a bachelor鈥檚 evening. He and his brothers were having a large bonfire one night and there were some gas cylinders close to the fire and one of them got too hot and exploded.
That explosion sent liquid fire in every direction and the closest to it suffered the most. Her son鈥檚 injuries were so severe he had to be put in a coma while the doctors worked to peel off burned skin and give other medical attention to him. The wedding was almost postponed, but his fianc茅e didn鈥檛 care what state he was in, he was going to be her husband and loved him very much.聽
Chipley remembers the awful stress of having her son in a coma before his big day and not knowing if he was going to be OK or wake up from his coma. But in the end a patched up man with a limp made it to his wedding day and has since been happily married. The couple is still doing well.
Tide, who is one of the original founding members of Toastmasters, helped start the club in 2003 in Estevan and has been a general Toastmasters member since 1992.
鈥淔or our first try this night has turned out well, we have had lots of people show up and having beer and drinks, I think has attracted a lot of people,鈥� said Tide.
鈥淲e have had some very good stories told that are the most important part, since we are a group dedicated to advancing people鈥檚 public speaking skills.鈥�
Dalton Bilsky, who is the vice-president of the club, knows how strict the traditional Toastmasters are and like many, he really enjoyed the more casual setting.
鈥淚 think this is better then the traditional Toastmasters because it brings people in and shows them what you can actually do as a Toastmaster member,鈥� he said.
鈥淲hen an event is very structured people get nervous about the formalities and that might scare them off and we don鈥檛 want that. I think it鈥檚 better but whether or not they do may be a different story.鈥�
Anyone interested in Toastmasters is encouraged to get in touch with them, and a similar more casual event will is planned for the fall.
