The Day the Music Died? A Toastmasters Success Story.

Question from Quora,

What are some success stories after attending Toastmasters?

The power of public speaking is truly amazing. Over my years with Toastmasters I saw adults just scared to death to speak in front of a group and make truly remarkable successes.

One young man I knew was a ninth-grade dropout or ( at 16 they asked him to leave ).
He never forgot that day because in history it was called ( The Day the Music Died - On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash.)

In 2003 he was invited to a Toastmaster meeting, Club 1810, Tampa, Fl. He was at that time promoting the Mad Beach Mad Dog Triathlon, Medirea Beach Fl.

When Toastmaster, Sanford Sabel, DTM ( Distinguished Toastmaster) asked him to present a class for the Great American Teach-in. It's a day every Oct. when professionals go to the schools and talk to them about careers, could be Fireman, Policeman, he chose a motivational style speech. He was just a three-month Toastmaster. Soon his life was about to change because of Toastmasters?
It was that sixteen-year-old boy in the front row yes ( the class clown ), then he had a flashback to that boy who was thrown out of school at sixteen.

Instead of all the ways the school had tried to control him, he just decided to give the class clown an important role that day. It worked and he became an important part of that program.
That is exactly when he realized why he had become a Toastmaster ( take this new found confidence and go out and speak to young people about how important it is to stay in school!)

Then he was mentored into the Toastmaster Youth Leadership Program (YLP) by DTM, Terry Okus, then he created www.youthspeakingtoamerica.zohosites.com, and then creating Weebewclub.com here in Naga City, Philippines in 2017. Now over thirty YLP programs taught.

That is my success story. The five years I taught classes twice a year at Pasadena Fundamental Elementary School, the students gave me these thank you notes, they are my Nobel Prize; now take your Toastmaster Leadership and find some children, or just tell the world, and show them how you became a success because of Toastmasters.