School's Speech Contest 2012

Mary Buckley, who 6 years ago saw the opportunity available to enhance the educational life of teenagers by facilitating a public speaking contest, invites you to this years contest. “Life is an opportunity,- benefit from it,”-this is what we offer our young people in Toastmasters. One of the highlights of the Speakeasy Toastmaster calender year is the Inter-schools public speaking competition, which is now in its seventh year. With the help and support of the Mallow Credit Union, who generously sponsor the event annually and provide the Credit Union Perpetual Trophy and the Hibernian Hotel who also provide a trophy, we are enabled to continue to host this competition, which is going from strength to strength. This competition first began in 2006 with the three second level schools in Mallow competing and “from small acorns mighty oaks do grow”. This year we have seven schools interested in competing, which includes the three second level schools in Mallow, -St Mary's secondary School, Davis College and the Patrician Academy and also schools from the surrounding areas. The Mallow Credit Union continues to recognise and support our work. Club members are willing and available to go into the schools to mentor and help the students to prepare for this contest. This has proven very successful. We believe that every child deserves a chance- and in Toastmasters we offer an opportunity and a platform for building self-confidence and self esteem in an encouraging and motivating environment. Confidence is a precious talent. We believe it is the key to success. Some people have it naturally, but for others, yes, it can be acquired. One of our youngest club members to date was a former school contestant. Today Kieran is a confident speaker and a very enthusiastic club member, and while speaking to UCC student, Kieran Butler recently, he informed me that from his own personal experiences Toastmaster is a great way for young people to find their voice, and to learn express their opinions clearly. He also said it is a very useful skill to have and the more you practice it, the more beneficial it becomes, especially when faced with interviews or even in the workplace. Yes, it is our belief in Toastmasters that by starting early, young people will acquire an ease with communication skills and public speaking which will stand to them in their oral examination and presentations in later life. Back in 2010 at our divisional conference in Dublin one of the keynote speakers from the UK encouraged all present to reach out to others in our local communities and in our schools and set up more Toastmasters groups. This in return can help to alleviate some social problems. In Speakeasy Toastmasters we believe in ourselves, and that w good self esteem and good communication skills, are a powerful academic tool which we would like all young people to have as they journey on their chosen careers. This is why we organise this competition each year. We invite you all to come along at 8pm on November22nd at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow and get a flavour of what our amazing talented young people have to offer,- a night of entertainment, education, and fun not to be missed. Speakeasy toastmasters next meets at 8pm Hibernian Mallow every other Thursday, next meeting is on tonight! Nov 15th. Guests are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485. "Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and on our blog "http://speakeasytm.blogspot. www.speakeasytoastmasters.com