Athlone Toastmasters took part in the Division F International Speech & Evaluation contest last Saturday afternoon at the Carlton Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe.
Division F takes in all Toastmaster clubs from Donegal south to Limerick, all the Midland counties, and northwest to Fermanagh and Roscommon. With such a large selection of competing clubs, it was no mean feat that Siobhan Fitzgerald from the Athlone Toastmasters Club and John Fallon from neighbouring Longford Toastmasters Club made it to the Speech Evaluation and International Speech Contest respectively!
Siobhan is a longstanding member of Athlone Toastmasters and has got to the divisional level of competition before. In this contest she acquitted herself excellently and in a very tight contest received the silver prize. The eventual winner, Dave O’Brien, now goes on to represent the Division F in the district final (all of England and Ireland ) in four weeks time in Sligo.
John finished in third position in the Speech contest. Well done to both Siobhan and John for representing the Midlands Toastmasters region so splendidly!
There was a final kudos for the Athlone Club when the division governor, Werner van der Hemel, presented Athlone’s vice president of public relations, Eoghan McGuire, with a recognition award for all the effort during the the 2009-2010 season.
This divisional final was also tinged with a little sadness for the Athlone group. Two longstanding and valued members, Luke Daly and Mary Naylor, passed to their eternal reward during the weekend. They made very valued contributions down through the years and will be remembered with fondness by all club members.
The final two Athlone meetings before the summer break take place in the Prince of Wales Hotel at 8.30pm on May 11 and 25. Eoghan can be contacted at (087 ) 1316879 or check out the website at www.athlonetoastmasters.org
