Some members of Div. U at the Annual Convention of District 80
From left to right: Chooi Ling, Edward Ma, Ed Hearn, Kristina, Anne Barab, yours truly, David Liem and Bee Bee
One of the most prominent guests in our District 80 Annual Convention is Anne Barab. We were mesmerised by her vivacious personality, her positiveness and her humorous and charming personality. Once in a while, I would send her an email and to my pleasant surprise, despite her hectic schedules, she would reply and promptly too.! My pastor had said that when you give a busy person a task, somehow he/she will always be able to get it done. I guess it all boils down to effective time management.
Here, I share with readers her email. I hope that this article will reach out to toastmasters around the world too. What an inspiring sotry about Lashunda Rundles!
I hope your spirit will be uplifted just as mine.
Dear Kam Choo Choo,
Congratulations on overcoming your fear!!! The personal growth rewards of being a brave Toastmaster are enormous. I’m so glad you chose to grow with courage, rather than to give in to your pre-contest nerves. Contests help us grow like no other Toastmaster’s experience.
Would you please be kind enough to forward this message from me to your District 80 distribution list?
Dear District 80,
How wonderful to see your smiling faces and read your names in Kam Choo Choo’s email! I so treasure the District 80 friendships when we visited in May. And it was even better seeing many of you again in Calgary in August.
Speaking of Calgary , perhaps you remember Lashunda Rundles who won the International Speech Contest this year. Well, she is from District 50 here in Dallas , Texas . In her winning speech she mentioned she has Lupus, a deadly disease where the body’s cells attack each other. She spent 8 months in the hospital last year and had several toes amputated. Although she looked so composed at the contest she was in terrible pain and could not keep food down. When she returned to Dallas we had a celebration honoring her. She gave her winning speech sitting in a chair, then drove directly to the hospital and checked in. She’s been in the intensive care unit (ICU) for weeks. Her colon burst open and filled her body with a terrible infection. After exploratory surgery, the doctors told her she maybe had a month to live if she had surgery every 3 or 4 days. Not a promising prognosis. However, she is an incredibly brave and strong soul who is fighting back. She’s still with us and has been able to sit up in a chair for an hour a couple of times. So many Toastmasters come to see her that the hospital is giving us crowd control instructions. So please keep Lashunda in your prayers.
I’ve had a busy summer and fall speaking all over the country, but now I’m home for the rest of the year. My new website is going live shortly. Here’s a link www.AnneBarab.com/dev2 On a personal note, Stu and I have taken up bicycling and I’ve managed to fall off twice, once to the right on cement and again on the left on grass which is much softer. As a result I have some pretty spectacular bruises. Our other big news is we are expecting our first grandchild, due January 24th. Our daughter and son-in-law are naming her Olivia Anne in honor of me. Wow! What joy.
America will be celebrating a national holiday called Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. Families get together to eat turkey, watch a lot of football on TV, and be thankful for our many blessings. Top on my list of gratitudes are all of you in District 80!! Your hospitality toward us was boundless, but mainly you all (y’all in Texas ) are just so darn much fun! Stu and I reminisce about laughing with you so hard our ribs hurt. I still hear from some of you (you know who you are) but I’d love to find out how more of you are doing so please hit Reply and let me know.
From my country to yours, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU for the family of Toastmasters!!!!!!!
Warmly,
The Resilience Expert
Balancing Attitude, Reality And Behavior
214-349-2777 voice
214-293-9009 cell
www.AnneBarab.com
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