Ivy Tech Toastmasters club president Dr. Dwight Perry accepts a proclamation from Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson
Gary's Ivy Tech celebrates new Toastmasters Club
Contributed By:The 411 News
There is nothing our community needs more than communication and leadership, says mayor
Where else but a Toastmasters presentation could a 12-bulletpoint program be completed in an hour?
Only the guest speaker, Dr. Fred Johnson, an award winning international speaker was allowed a bit more than the 5 minutes Toastmasters learn to gather thoughts and ideas and form them into a speech with an opening, the body, and the closing.
Toastmasters International operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Toastmasters’ 352,000 members are in 16,400 clubs in 141 countries.
At the charter ceremony for the opening of its new Toastmasters Ivy Tech Community College Club, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson proclaimed September 15 as Toastmasters Day, noting “There is nothing our community needs more than communication and leadership.”
Among the club’s challenges, said Scott Palmer, Toastmaster Division A Director, “Make the club strong, listen effectively, and care about people.”
The mayor’s pairing of “communication and community” is also a constant theme of our 411 Focus writer Dorothy Nevils, a former communications teacher in the Gary school district. Nevils sometimes goes to our language’s Latin roots in her weekly columns.
The word communication comes from the Latin word "communis" which means common.
The word community comes from the Latin word “communitas” which is the "public spirit" and "shared in common."
Ivy Tech nursing instructor and Toastmasters member Creola Henderson, also the club’s VP for membership, stressed the importance of communication in her communities and why she joined the club.
“I want to be a better communicator in the classroom and motivate students to hear my lectures. Some of them hear and get bored, some hear and don’t understand,” Henderson said.
Henderson has 30 years experience in medical surge, intensive and critical care. “No matter how good the medical care you’re giving, if you don’t come in letting the patient know what’s going on – you’ll lose them; but if you do, they’ll embrace you.”
Denise Crowther, the club’s secretary is a retiree of Indiana’s Dept. of Family Services. Although she has a degree in communications, Crowther said she joined Toastmasters because she didn’t want to lose her communication skills. Crowther now holds 2 Toastmaster certificates of accomplishments.
The club is looking for new members and its meetings are open to those interested in Toastmasters. Meetings are held at Ivy Tech, 1440 E. 35th Avenue, Gary on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Fridays, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. To contact the club, email TLCToastmasters@ivytech.edu
Seated (l-r) Creola Henderson, Wilma Watson, Dr. Margaret Semmer; standing, Dr. Dwight Perry, Denise D. Crowther, Dr. Fred Johnson III, Joseph Phillips, and Carol Crouse
Story Posted:09/23/2017
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