Ninety-four year old wins local Toastmasters speech contest

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Photo

Above, from left, Toastmasters Neil McBride of Warren and Art Byrd of Boardman hold their trophies from the Toastmasters of Warren Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest. Both men competed in the district tournament which included clubs from Youngstown, Allliance and Warren.

Staff report

WARREN

Toastmaster Neil McBride won first place recently in the humorous speech contest at the Toastmasters of Warren’s Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest held at the Wean Building. McBride is 94.

In a humorous speech contest, a contestant has 5 to 7 minutes to give a funny speech.

McBride taught in the Warren City School system for 50 years. He has been a Toastmaster for about a year. He remarked, “The first year, to get the top award is unbelievable.” McBride turns 95 on Oct. 13.

Another portion of the contest includes Table Topics in which contestants have 1 to 21⁄2 minutes to respond to a question or word that is not known beforehand. Art Byrd of Boardman won the Table Topics club contest. He has been a Toastmaster since 2009. Last year, he earned a DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) which is the highest award given by Toastmasters International.

Byrd’s Table Topic’s word was “candy corn.” He said, ” I took the first thing that popped in my mind about “candy corn” which was trick-or-treating with my friends and finding a house with good candy. We switched masks and went back to the same house numerous times.”

Details of McBride’s speech cannot be given because he may use the same speech in the district contest.

McBride and Byrd also competed in the district contest Thursday at the Toastmasters 408 meeting place at the Republican Party headquarters in Boardman. The district contest featured Toastmasters clubs from Youngstown, Alliance and Warren competing against one another in the Humorous Speech and Table Topics categories.

Toastmasters of Warren meets the second and fourth Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 2627 Atlantic St. NE. Guests are welcome to stop by for any meeting.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit worldwide organization that teaches public-speaking and leadership skills. TI has helped people of all backgrounds become more confident speaking in front of an audience.