by Paige Trimble
It’s a Saturday night in downtown Denton. Brisket, mac and cheese, beans, and coleslaw are on the menu. I serve myself an iced tea and observe the many colorful and crafty shoes fluttering around the room. Compliments are exchanged, and the gratitude for the permission to wear comfortable attire is felt.
You may be asking yourself, “Why are Toastmasters eating BBQ together in their sneakers?” – Besides training to become the official taste testers of all three flavors of cheesecake bites, we were really there to hear Bobby Madera serenade us with The Beach Boys. – I’m kidding!
Believe it or not, I am describing the District 25 2025 Year End Celebration! By incorporating his signature style into the event’s theme, the 2024-2025 District Director, Jesse Ford, pulled off making an awards ceremony feel more like a family gathering!
The 2025 Year End Celebration, titled “Here We Grew!”, a play on the year’s theme, “Here We Grow!”, recognized the “bloomtastic” successes of its members and clubs. Acceptance speeches were filled with humble appreciation and extended acknowledgments for the help received from other members and leaders.
In the simple words of the awarded Toastmaster of the Year, Kelsey Dean, “I’m already ready for next year!” The fruits of labor were harvested, and next season’s crops are already underground, preparing to flourish.
Like the seeds, we each have the potential for transformation within us. All that’s needed is the right environment. Toastmasters District 25 is that environment. Watering its members with overflowing knowledge, temperatures are kept regulated with warmth and kindness, and light is provided by rays of sunshine wearing sparkling tiaras.
If you didn’t attend the 2025 Year End Celebration, you missed the opportunity to witness interactive engagement from the audience, literal mic drops, applause by freight train, spontaneous stand-ins, and Denise McConnell double down on the friendly roast of Jesse so as not to be too easy on him. After all, I heard that this was all his fault.
In the past, I have attended Toastmasters events as a guest of my mother-in-love, Joyce Trimble. I’ve enjoyed the outside perspective of observing and admiring the tender exchange of trust between fellow members. After finding myself on a stage I had no business being on tonight, I must agree with how Sallie Spradlin-Jett put it, “Oh, you’re in it now!” She’s right.
I have flown around the flowers long enough to have found a place to land. Now a new member of Toastmasters, I get the chance to “glove up” and cultivate alongside the very people who brightened my skies without knowing I was in the middle of a storm. I can see that every introduction, meeting, and speech I have heard was actually the process of pollination occurring. Thank you for sharing success so well that it is contagious! Let’s keep growing!
