Winners named in Palmer Toastmasters speech contest

PALMER — Palmer Toastmasters had another fun club speech contest Feb. 4. If you weren’t there, you missed three great speeches, two excellent speech evaluations and some wonderful finger food, too.

David Driscoll did a great job as the contest chair.

Meschelle Kolb and Joy Cypra competed in the speech portion of the contest.

This contest was defined as “International” by Toastmasters International, which means speakers could deliver any manner of speech they chose.

Both were well prepared and gave excellent speeches; one was humorous and the other inspirational. Kolb was awarded first place and Cypra was second place.

John Rozzi gave the “test speech” for the Speech Evaluation portion of the contest. He delivered a great speech that held our attention and built awareness of the homeless crisis in the Valley.

Contestants in this portion of the contest were Karen Robinette and Kolb, who both gave excellent evaluations of Rozzi’s speech using the “sandwich” method.

Each gave a positive summary, good feedback and helpful suggestions on how Rozzi might be able to improve upon his speech, followed by genuine praise and gratitude for his speech.

Kolb was awarded first place, Robinette second place.

Once a member wins a contest at the club level, they are then eligible and encouraged to compete in the area-level contest.

All contest participants went on the Area 7 contest Feb. 8 at the Palmer MTA Building. Kolb came in first in both the speech and evaluation contest; John Royce was second in the speech contest, and Linda Black came in second in the evaluation contest.