History

After starting several clubs that focused primarily on communication and subsequently failed, YMCA director Ralph C. Smedley tried again. Once more he organized a Toastmasters club, holding the first meeting in the Santa Ana YMCA basement on October 22, 1924. In Southern California’s optimistic climate, the concept caught on. Men from the neighboring communities sought out the group and liked what they saw. Smedley, a good friend of Dale Carnegie, was quick to help them organize their own Toastmasters clubs. The new clubs were united in a federation designed to coordinate their activities and ensure uniform methods.

In 1932, the federation was incorporated as Toastmasters International, following the establishment of a club in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Districts were created later, as the number of clubs continually increased.

The organization began with two manuals — Basic Training and Beyond Basic Training — written by Smedley. He also found time to write several tomes on public speaking and parliamentary procedure. The Voice of the Speaker, Speech Evaluation and The Amateur Chairman found a ready audience in Toastmaster members. (Smedley also wrote The Great Peacemaker, a biography of Henry M. Robert, author of the famed Robert’s Rules of Order.)

Toastmasters has continued to flourish, including the decision to accept women as members in 1973. Headquartered in Southern California, the organization now has approximately 200,000 members and 9,300 clubs in 80 countries. Thousands of corporations and government agencies, including Rockwell International in Downey and Irvine’s Fluor Daniel sponsor in-house Toastmasters clubs as communication training for
their employees. Specialized clubs meet at military bases, colleges
and universities, churches and prisons. There are Toastmasters clubs
for senior citizens, professional groups, bilingual groups, singles and
visually impaired.

Since its founding in 1924, Toastmasters International has helped four
million men and women develop their public speaking skills and become confident communicators at work, at home, and yes, even at parties.

Bedstone An Overview

In early 1988, when Mary Nowakowski, an Area Governor, was visiting the Centennial Club, Midnapore, SW, a member by the name of Avner Perl mentioned that he wanted to start a club in the Northwest. They soon became committed to the idea and started to form a club.

Avner found a meeting place in Sandstone Ecumenical Church. Father Jack Basticgial felt Toastmasters was the number one self-help group in the world. He assured Bedstone that they could have a free meeting space in the church for as long as it took to establish their club.

Five people attended the first meeting, including Avner Perl, Joe Beardsworth, Walter, Muhammad Yaseen, and Mary. Many other wonderful people soon joined to swell their numbers to twenty-the magic number needed to acquire their charter. Some of the charter members had been volunteers for the Winter Olympics in Calgary. They felt that it had been such a wonderful experience that they wanted to memorialize the Olympics by including the word in the name of their new club. Since the club met on the edge of the communities of Beddington and Sandstone, the name Bedstone Olympics was adopted. Bedstone Olympics Toastmasters Club, No. 7554, was chartered in June 1989, with Mary Nowakowski elected the first President. The Centennial Club sponsored Bedstone Olympics and they were instrumental in helping to get it started. There was always helpful advice from their executive, particularly Irene Murray, Buffy Da Silva, and David Townsend.

Since that time, there have been many changes to membership with many great people joining for a short time, or a long time. From the Fall of 1988 to June 1992 the club operated out of a room on the second level of the Sandstone Ecumenical Center. From Sept 1992 to June 1993 the club was located in a ground floor room of the Beddington Community center. Since September 1993 Bedstone Olympics have been tenants of the Huntington Hills Community Center.

The club has always been fortunate in recruiting dedicated members to create a fun, spirited atmosphere and from which to choose executive teams. These members have greatly contributed to the club culture, with a foundation that includes a spirit of friendship and support from day one. In fact, there has not even been one murder though we once had a murder mystery night written by Wendy Mewhort.

Miscellaneous Memories

Jim Muller, former Hamilton Tiger Cat and Bedstone Olympic founding member, started the tradition of turning out the lights and passing a candle around while members are introducing themselves at the Halloween meeting. Jim once won a Tom Selleck look alike contest and with it a trip to Hawaii. Needless to say he was quite popular with the female members. Sadly, Jim died in a traffic accident in 1996.

The Torch…and other writing

Doreah Rosenar suggested that the club have a contest to name their newsletter. There were several excellent ideas; however, the one that tied in closest to what we envisioned our bulletin to be was the Bedstone Olympic Torch, (to be passed from hand-to-hand, etc.).

Wendy Mewhort was the editor of the Bedstone Olympics Torch bulletin for seven years (Fall 1991 till Fall 1998). During that time, Wendy was editor of the year for Division C three times.

Bedstone has also contributed to the monthly Toastmaster magazine that Toastmasters International sends all members. Sally Lim, of Bedstone Olympics, wrote an article entitled Membership Building: Give Your Club a Boost the Bedstone Olympic Way, that appeared in the November 1995 issue of Toastmaster magazine.

The Webpage

Our webpage was first created on a geocities site by Joan Miller, incoming VP Public Relations in June of 2003. We registered our own domain www.bedstoneolympics.com in April of 2004 and the page was hosted free by Dark Plasma, Inc. In 2007 Wilco Oudjik revamped the esthetics of the page and transferred the domain name to free hosting on his webserver,
www.vivacious.ca. Palmo Carpino provided advice and the banner art for both versions of the page. Joan Miller edits the content and donates the cost of the domain name registration. In 2009, Michael and Sandra Grills revamped the behind the scenes portion of the website and added
a members only section.

Special Contributions

While a meeting that runs well, like a family, requires that all members contribute by attending, preparing, listening and being supportive. Bedstone has had a few members contribute in ways that we all see every meeting.

Al Nelson, that noted carpenter, built our club timing lights a number of years ago. He also built our easel and our new lectern.

Every meeting, our resident cameraman, Larry Mewhort or his backup, Travis Thibeault, records our speeches and then transfers them to our videotapes before the next meeting. Larry has been doing this since December 1991.

When the club moved to Huntington Hills in 1993-94 with Travis Thibeault as a-very-hands-on President, new levels of membership and achievement were reached.

Do unto others…

As Bedstone was indebted to Centennial Toastmasters Club to help us get started, several members of our club gave of their time and energies to start up the Edgemont Club several years ago. Travis Thibeault, Wendy Mewhort, Al Nelson and Laura Chambers worked to build this successful club in Calgary. Travis Thibeault was the leader and organizer.

Beyond the Club

Bedstone hosted the Calgary (Toastmasters Learning Institute) TLI in January 2000. Ray Mulvihill, a longtime Toastmaster and former Bedstone Member mentored the organizers of this event. Pat Grant was chief organizer along with other notable contributors Palmo Carpino, Larry and Wendy Mewhort and Duncan McEown.

Also, a number of members have been Area Governors, including
Eric Jackson, Larry Mewhort, Travis Thibeault, Pat Grant, Ray Mulvihill,
Mirka Saracini and Doreah Rosenar. Eric Jackson was Division Governor
for Division J. Travis Thibeault was District Judge for District 42 (Alberta
and Saskatchewan).

In 1995-96 while Pat Grant was President and Laura Chambers was Vice President of Education, Bedstone Olympics won the distinction of being District 42′s (Alberta and Saskatchewan) top club of the year in the 30 plus members category.

2007-2008 was a record year for district service by individuals in our club. District 42 positions held were:

Division C Governor 2007-2008 Joan Miller

Division J Governor 2007-2008 John Snelson

Area C5 Governor 2007-2008 Palmo Carpino

Area C34 Governor 2007-2008 Charles Mohammed

Area C5 2008-2009 Governor Shannon Lang

Area 49 2008-2009 Governor Bonnie Sham

Awards

President’s Distinguished Club
2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09

Members of Distinction

Toastmasters, is broken down into Regions, Districts, Divisions, Areas, and Clubs. Each year there are 5 contests (Table Topics, Humorous, Tall Tales, Evaluation, International) that allow members to show off their skills. Bedstone has had numerous members represent us at these various contests. They have also sent many supporters to these contests. A trophy used to be given out in Division C for the club that had the most attendees at the Division contests. Bedstone won that trophy many times.

The First President is elected.

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

Sgt. At Arms prepares for our first meeting.

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

Participants in the Tall Tales competition illustrating through the use of hand gestures.

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

It is announced that Table Topics is about to commence.

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

Social Activities

For some members, a more attractive event than being called up for a tough Table Topic is the ‘The Meeting After the Meeting’. After meetings, many members get together in the lounge downstairs (early or late in the year we meet at Beddington Arms until the lounge opens for the curling season) for a beverage and some socializing. The discussions range from the educational to the outrageous, from areas for improvement to building of friendships.

The club has extended beyond the actual meetings to include an annual pilgrimage every year since 1993 to spend a Saturday night in May or June having dinner together and then attending Gorilla Theatre at the Loose Moose Theatre Company, where many stories and laughs are shared.

In recent years, several members and former members have put on their hiking boots and got together throughout the summer to going hiking out to the mountains or Kananaskis, often meeting for breakfast first.

Our Christmas and year-end parties are well attended by members and their significant others. These are hosted by a volunteer in the club (or as has happened several times, a sister of a member) and are pot luck. Once again the objective is, as a party should be, to socialize and have some fun.

From 1993 till 1998 Al Nelson brought his Karaoke machine to every Christmas and year-end party. A highlight was listening to Al sing “My Way”. In 1994 the police came to our party and demanded that we shut down the singing. For the next three years we were able to hold our parties outside of the city on acreages owned by former members. At one Division C Contest a Karaoke Contest was held. The team of Ian Armstrong, Eric Jackson, Al Nelson, and Travis Thibeault sang ‘Elvira’ and won the contest.

Distinguished Toastmasters

Bedstone has also had a member who has achieved the highest award that Toastmasters International awards. Travis Thibeault and Palmo Carpino have achieved his DTM while a member of Bedstone. Two other members Ken Richard and Ray Mulvihill also had DTMs that they achieved with previous clubs. Highest designation is held by current member Judy Lathorpe who is a DTM as well as a Past International Director.

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

Bedstone An Overview (continued)

Presidents

1989 Mary Nowakowski

1990 Laura Chambers

1991 Mirka Saraceni

1992 Larry Mewhort

1993 Travis Thibeault

1994 Wendy Mewhort

1995 Pat Grant

1996 Dirk Dekens

1997 Bob Faye

1998 Vilnis Muiznieks

1999 Eric Jackson

2000 Travis Thibeault

2001 Bob Faye•

2002 John Snelson•

2003 Palmo Carpino

2004 Scott Bogart

2005 Joan Miller•

2006 Charles Mohammed

2007 Holly Goebel

2008 Reg Miller

Toastmaster of the Year

Travis Thibeault

Laura Chambers

Larry Mewhort

Travis Thibeault

Travis Thibeault

Larry Mewhort

Pat Grant

Travis Thibeault

John Snelson

Palmo Carpino

Scott Bogart

Paula Cross

Charles Mohammed•

Reg Miller

Rookie of the Year

Wendy Mewhort

Ian Armstrong

Bob Frost

Kathleen Walls ?

Allan Krause

Vilnis Muiznieks

Brigitta Freeman

John Snelson*

Paul Teoh

Darrell Castor

Scott Bogart

Cheryl Russell

Gary Funk

Reg Miller

Holly Goebel•

Shannon Lang

*Area Winner •Division Winner ?District Winner

Humorous – 5–7 Minutes

This contest is held in the Fall in conjunction with Table Topics contest

Laura Chambers• 1989

1990

1991

Ray Mulvihill• 1992

1993

Ian Armstrong 1994

Laura Chambers 1995

Eric Jackson 1996

Clint Strowger 1997

Travis Thibeault• 1998

Palmo Carpino* • 1999

Palmo Carpino* • 2000

Larry Mewhort 2001

Larry Mewhort 2002

Palmo Carpino*• 2003

Gary Funk 2004

John Snelson 2005

Palmo Carpino* 2006

Jim Kostrosky 2007

Ken VanderMeulen 2008

*Area Winner •Division Winner ?District Winner

Table Topics – 2 Minutes

This contest is held in the Fall in conjunction with Humorous contest

1989

Muhammad Yaseen 1990

Gerrard Black 1991

Gerrard Black 1992

Larry Mewhort* 1993

Laura Chambers 1994

Al Nelson 1995

Iris Gousseau 1996

Dirk Dekens 1997

Al Nelson*• 1998

Al Nelson 1999

Al Nelson 2000

Al Nelson*• 2001

Palmo Carpino 2002

Travis Thibeault 2003

Wendy Mewhort 2004

John Snelson 2005

Holly Goebel 2006

Tracey Horsley 2007

Larry Mewhort 2008

*Area Winner •Division Winner ?District Winner

Tall Tales 3–5 Minutes

The Tall Tales contest was discontinued as an official Toastmaster contest in 1993. Bedstone Olympics however have continued to have a club contest and to compete in a Calgary Tall Tales contest.

Laura Chambers 1989

1990

Sonya Mueller 1991

Larry Mewhort 1992

1993

Avron Gray 1994

Laura Chambers 1995

Laura Chambers 1996

Laura Chambers 1997

Laura Chambers 1998

Laura Chambers* 1999

Vilnis Muizneiks* 2000

Dirk Dekens 2001

Palmo Carpino* 2002

Scott Bogart 2003

Scott Bogart 2004

Janice Winch 2005

Larry Mewhort 2006

Clint Stroger 2007

not held 2008

Larry Mewhort 2009

*award winner at finals

Evaluation – 3 Minutes

This contest is held in the Spring in conjunction with International contest.

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

Laura Chambers*• 1995

Roxanne Peterson 1996

Bob Faye 1997

Travis Thibeault 1998

Pat Grant*• 1999

Travis Thibeault*• 2000

Larry Mewhort 2001

Travis Thibeault 2002

Travis Thibeault 2003

Travis Thibeault 2004

Travis Thibeault 2005

Travis Thibeault 2006

Palmo Carpino* 2007

Holly Goebel 2008

Palmo Carpino 2009

*Area Winner •Division Winner ?District Winner

International – 5–7 Minutes

This contest is held in the Spring in conjunction with Evaluation contest

1990

1990

Avner Perl* 1991

1992

1993

Suzanne Snozyk• 1994

1995

Kathleen Walls ? 1996

Bob Faye*• 1997

Larry Mewhort 1998

Bob Faye*• 1999

Clint Strowger 2000

Mike Thomas* 2001

Larry Mewhort 2002

Hin Chan 2003

Palmo Carpino* 2004

Stephanie Dueck 2005

Paula Cross 2006

Palmo Carpino* 2007

Judy Lathorpe 2008

Sandra Grills* 2009

*Area Winner •Division Winner ?District Winner

Area, Division & District Assorted

The winners from our club contest may then proceed to the Area competition. Winners from the Area go on
to the Division competition. Winners from Division finally proceed to District (Alberta & Saskatchewan).

Area 49

First Place International Suzanne Snozyk 1992

First Place International Suzanne Snozyk 1993

First Place International Kathleen Walls 1996

First Place International Bob Faye 1997

First Place International Clint Strowger 1998

First Place International Bob Faye 1999

First Place International Mike Thomas 2001

First Place Evaluations Gerard Black 1991

First Place Evaluations Gerard Black 1992

First Place Evaluations Laura Chambers 1995

First Place Evaluations Laura Chambers 1996

First Place Evaluations Laura Chambers 1996

First Place Evaluations Travis Thibeault 1999

First Place Evaluations Pat Grant 2000

First Place Evaluations Pat Grant 2001

First Place Evaluations Travis Thibeault 2003

First Place Table Topics Al Nelson 1995

Second Place Table Topics Travis Thibeault 2003

First Place Humorous Rod Burylo 1996

First Place Humorous Dirk Dekens 1997

First Place Humorous Travis Thibeault 1998

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 1999

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2000

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2001

Second Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2003

First Place Evaluation Palmo Carpino 2007

First Place International Palmo Carpino 2007

Third Place Humorous Reg Miller 2008

First Place International Sandra Grills 2009

Area, Division & District Assorted (continued)

Division C

First Place Tall Tales Sonya Mueller 1991

First Place Table Topics Al Nelson 1998

Second Place Table Topics Al Nelson 1997

First Place Evaluation Laura Chambers 1995

First Place Evaluation Travis Thibeault 1999

First Place Evaluation Pat Grant 2001

Second Place Evaluation Laura Chambers 1996

First Place International Bob Faye 1999

First Place International Suzanne Snozyk 1993

First Place International Bob Faye 1997

Second Place Humorous Ray Mulvihill 1993

First Place Humorous Laura Chambers 1991

First Place Humorous Travis Thibeault 1998

Second Place Humorous Dirk Dekens 1997

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 1999

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2000

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2002

First Place Humorous Palmo Carpino 2003

Second Place International Palmo Carpino 2007

Second Place Evaluation Palmo Carpino 2007

Third Place International Sandra Grills 2009

District 42

First Place Evaluation Laura Chambers 1995

Third Place International Kathleen Walls 1996

Third Place Evaluation Travis Thibeault 1999

Second Place Evaluation Pat Grant 2001

Bedstone Olympic Toastmasters’ weekly meetings are held every Wednesday evening 7:30pm September through mid-June at the Huntington Hills Community Centre on
the north-west corner of Centre Street and 78th Avenue NW. You can find us online
at www.bedstoneolympics.com. All Guests Welcome.