November 24th, 2006

Last night we had a star performance by Kim Page as the guest speaker at the American Society Thanksgiving Dinner. There were over 80 people who attended, she had no microphone nor podium (although she preferred that set-up). Kim shared the importance of giving thanks and also the importance of giving.

She first took us back to 1621 the first Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth with a description which made you feel you were right there with the pilgrims and Indians. She also shared personal family experiences of an elderly woman "Maria" who said "thank you, thank you very much" everyday for the basic repetitive services she received in a nursing home. Kim's depiction of Maria was extraordinary as she hunched-over, moved and spoke like a 102 year woman. I was way off to the side, but Kim's facial expressions were so vivid it was like a real transformation. Not to mention the "queen" of body language as her arms naturally flowed throughout her speech.

So a "10" for body language and also vocal variety!! Her props were few but punctual and complete attention gettters. Her long list of things to be thankful for (a banner paper of at least 2 meters long) was a surprise and humorous, but the suspense of sharing which one, of all the things on her list, was the most important (with great pauses) had everyone in suspense. Her response..... the most basic and fundamental- the act of "giving". With emotional grabbers of real examples of giving, I believe made everyone reflect and I saw so many heads nodding up and down in affirmation. The audience was completely captivated- she had complete control and attention of everyone in the room. It was very emotional!

Then her finale included a brief description of the movie the "Secret" and the symbolism of the stone that is carried in the pocket to touch everyday to remember to be thankful or to give thanks. At that moment nearly 100 stones were poured into a metal bucket by Kim, which made a extremely large noice (almost like a long thunder). With her strong close which included how grateful she was to have been the guest speaker at such an important holiday event and after a large round of applause, Kim proceeded to offer stones from her bucket to everyone in the audience going from one table to the next, allowing each of us to pick one out. ¡¡Que detalle!!

Kim, for the few of us that were there last night from Prestigious Speakers, Angela, Birgitte and myself, we were all so proud to be a fellow Toastmaster of yours and I know all other Prestigious Speakers' members who weren't there, would have been equally as proud!!

CONGRATULATIONS ON A GREAT PERFORMANCE!!!

Belinda