To old friends and new beginnings

The Florida Toastmasters said goodbye to 2019 and looked forward to welcoming the New Year with their year-end dinner on 3 December.

A joyous and festive night, the public speakers celebrated Christmas with their usual speeches and a delicious feast in between. The Huguenot Restaurant was filled with excited Toastmasters and happy families all anxious to gorge themselves on the food the restaurant has to offer.

President of the Florida Toastmasters, Robert de Kramer, announced the meeting open with a hearty welcome. This was followed by Matthew and Tim Knights proposing the Loyal Toast and the Toast to Toastmasters International respectively.

Diana Rodrigues pulled on the heartstrings of all the people who attended with an emotional toast to her late husband, Victor.

At the start of the night, the guests were asked to write down their most loved Christmas traditions and put them in a hat. Between drinks, speeches, casual conversation, and food, Gail Hemming shared some of these traditions. The guests bonded over their common loves and traditions during the festive season. Apart from William Kelly, who described why he is not a fan of the festive season in his prepared speech; saying that Christmas just reminds him of the other days of the year that aren’t as festive.

Before William’s speech, Karen Gray took to the podium to tell a very humorous story about her late husband. Describing how a supposed burglar had set off their alarm while he was in the bath. Fully naked, the man armed himself and went to investigate, unaware that his cat had sat next to the phone purring to Chubb security on the other end. The bizarre incident proved to be a false alarm, but that didn’t stop it from making an entertaining story.

The long awaited food was then brought out and enjoyed by the Toastmasters and their guests. The meals were coupled with interesting conversations and a lot of laughs before the meeting continued.

The Jokes for the evening were told by guest speaker, Dave Cairns, followed by an interactive trivia game presented by Michael Glencross.

A change from their usual nightly awards, the Toast Masters waited to hear the winners of the awards that would be presented to the Toastmasters who had stepped up to the plate throughout the year.

• The Most Improved Speaker Award was presented to Mandy Gobisang

• Tim Knights took home two awards; one for Best Mentor and one for completing the most assignments

• William Kelly was presented with the award for Best Speech of the Semester

• Karen Gray bagged the award for Best Performance as a Toastmaster.

• The Helping Hand Trophy went to Gail Hemming

• Victor Chewe won an award for making the greatest contribution to the success of the club

• Diana Rodrigues was presented with the President’s Special Award for empowerment and dedication.

With well wishes for the New Year and Festive Season, the Toastmasters made their way home.