The Carillon Toastmasters Club based in Steinbach hosted the local Area 31 clubs for a humorous speech and table topics contest on Saturday evening and held a celebration for the immediate past district director Sylvia Nilsson-Barkman in the evening.

Spokesperson Sheryl Berglund says the Carillon Club does both humorous speaking and table topics every week, but the area competitions are always a highlight.

"I find humour very difficult and to sit and watch somebody grow a speech from something that was 'well OK it makes be smile' to something that makes me laugh out loud is very rewarding, and of course it is entertaining, we have fun with it every week that we do humorous speeches."

Berglund says table topics are two minute speeches with an open, a body, and a close and the contestant does not know what the topic is until they enter the room.

Berglund notes in the evening they celebrated Sylvia Nilsson-Barkman. She notes Nilsson-Barkman is one of the founding members of the Carillon Toastmasters Club and eventually went on to become the director of the district which covers Manitoba, Northwest Ontario, and Northwest Minnesota. She notes Nilsson-Barkman has had a huge impact on Southeastern Manitoba.

"She has been a great motivator for the Carillon Club for many years. She was a charter member, took some time off but came back. She welcomes people into the club who then build their own personalities, speaking skills, communication, and leadership and those people then go out into the community and bring those skills to whatever organizations they belong to."

Berglund says the whole Carillon Club and many members of the district were invited to the celebration.

"Our usual way of honouring the past district director is to roast them and we are going to do that to her too on November 11th in Brandon but I thought she needed to be warmed up first, so we are not roasting her tonight, it is all in appreciation for all she has done."