Catch them young; Watch them grow

On Nov 26, 2018, a small group of young people, between the ages of 11 and 17 spoke quite eloquently & passionately on Consumerism, Radiation, Globalization, Racism, Acidity in Oceanic Geography, Cardiovascular health, Food and Global Warming in a Talent showcase in front of a large audience and graduated the 8 week Youth Leadership Program (YLP) at the Churchill Meadows Library in Mississauga! They showed thoughtfulness, passion, research, leadership, sense of humour and boldness enough to stand in front of audience at least 4 times their age and call for action on these issues.

Pretty Impressive, don’t ya think? So, who are these kids, how did this come about?

Youth Leadership Program (YLP) is a Toastmaster International’s Community Outreach program, sponsored by local Toastmasters clubs and conducted by Toastmasters members and is offered FREE for all participants. Considering how much Toastmasters has made a huge difference for me and a million other people, I often wondered what difference would it have made if we had received this kind of help much earlier, especially in our formative school years. That’s how it got started and this program came to fruition with the combined sponsorship of Creekside TD Toastmasters club & Churchill Meadows Library.

What a great transformation from Day 1 to Day 8 of the program! I was so proud of the graduates, their newfound skills and their increase in confidence. All the hard work they put in, showed and they delivered with aplomb!

Many thanks to Library staff – Erin Straznik, Amna Hussain and my fellow Toastmaster members – Viji Anand, Sonia McGregor, Glynis D’souza & Rathika Ravichandran and my family members who gave their unconditional support and helped make this happen.