With a humorous speech titled “Gender Matters,” Dorothy Jno Baptiste, a happily married mother of three girls, won the Area 18’s National Humorous Speaking Contest on Thursday, September 15, 2016. Dorothy, a member of the Nature Isle Toastmasters Club, went up against two other finalists from the Northern District Toastmasters Club; Kereem Ferrol and Marva Baptiste.
“It’s a great feeling to succeed at this,” said the winner, who also won this year’s Area 18 International Speech contest. She said she entered this contest “to get out of my comfort zone as I did not believe that I possessed a funny bone.”
Her speech resonated with the crowd of between 40-50 people from both clubs, including guests, who attended the contest at the Vault of the Fort Young Hotel in Roseau. Her winning speech was about her interpretation of the roles of men and women. In doing so, she shared from personal experiences which piqued the curiosity of those in attendance; wondering which stories were true or exaggerated. She summarised her speech by indicating that if any women needed help with changing a tire, they should contact her so that she could call a man to do it.
Dorothy joined Toastmasters in 2014 and currently holds the Competent Communication (CC) and Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) designations. She also holds a bachelors degree in Management Studies obtained from U.W.I. – Mona Campus; Jamaica.
At the speech contest facilitated by the current Area Director and Contest Chair; Brenton Hilaire, contestants delivered five-to seven-minute speeches of a humorous nature and were judged on areas of speech development, effectiveness, speech value, audience response, physical, voice, manner, appropriateness and correctness.
Second place winner was Kereem Ferrol from Portsmouth, with a speech titled, “Keep Calypso Jamming”.
Dorothy Jno Baptiste qualifies to represent Dominica at the District competition to be held in Curacao from October 21-2, 2016.
Congratulations Dorothy Jno Baptiste