Let the Contests Continue!


Josh Gravley didn't just represent us well.  Henderson County has never even been represented before at so high a level as the District (state) level; that's not for for the Humorous Speech or the Table Topic Speech. Only Tucker Cox made it to District in the Evaluation Contest some time after 2010 and Moose Penfold from the "old" New Dimensions sister club made it in 2014 in the International Speech Contest.

Josh's journey began only two weeks after his Ice Breaker speech when he accepted the invitation to compete and got first out of five contestants in our local contest of September 20th.  From there it was first place in the area in mid-October and then a round-robin back at our club to help propel him through the division on November 9th.  This statewide audience of December 13th was quite massive in comparison, going from only about 40 members  in the area and division to well over 200. 



Josh's competition in the district were mainly from single stories:  Know Your Roommates; King Kong Anniversary; My Experience with Police for the First Time; Near Death Experience; Girl in Tights; When Life Hands You Lemons....; The Test Drive.  That test drive and near death experience were clearly fabrications, but the rest were true stories.  The final group of speeches were combinations of short stories to make points: Happy Dad; I Don't Want to Touch You there; Speak English.  Josh made his own category of Stand-up.  Eating Season was built upon humorous descriptions of his favorite seasons to eat, running from Halloween candy to Thanksgiving feasts to Christmas get-togethers.




The Test Drive won first, the Don't Touch got second, and the Tights got third, in the opinion of the judges.  Josh's creativity with language was masterful, as was his natural, very engaging style of delivery.  His  well-seasoned speech was a delight, and it was an honor for Susann as president and Stan as secretary to be in this audience knowing he was one of our own, one in our club that truly inspires the best in us as speakers.

Oh, and let this be a plug to for our upcoming contest to run on February 7th.  Anyone can enter the table topics contest.  Anyone having delivered six speeches or completed two levels can enter the contest portion called the International Speech Contest.  

Please let Stan Coss know if you are interested in competing or serving a supportive role, as qualified evaluator/judge, time keeper, or ballot counter.

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