Writing About Speaking

 

The other day, I was going through a pile of folders and found a bunch of old articles, speeches, and speaking-related papers. Most related to Leaders of Tomorrow, the group that introduced me to advocacy and public speaking.

This story goes back to 2002, when I was sitting as a Youth Representative on the North Dundas district council for Easter Seals. Early in the Fall of 2003, I was asked if I would like to be a part of a pilot group Easter Seals was launching called the Leaders of Tomorrow. The group was made up of 15-20 young adults from all across Ontario who would act as advocates for Easter Seals, and promote disability and accessibility awareness in general. The participants were also required to do 10 to 15 public speaking engagements over two years. I said yes, and had my first meeting with the group a few weeks later at a youth conference. 

I was presenting shortly into the next year, doing quick "thank-you's" at fundraising events, a couple talks to students at one of the local schools, and I even worked Easter Seals into a presentation for a Sociology class I was taking.

During college, I linked in with Easter Seals Ottawa and did a couple interviews for telethons and the news. I spoke in an ad that made it on the Jumbotron during an Ottawa 67s hockey game. And in what has probably been my worst speaking experience, I went off-paper (as in no written speech at all) and made a REALLY bad joke in front of business people, professional athletes, and one of Ottawa's best-known news personalities at a skating event with the Ottawa Senators, the city's professional hockey team!

After graduating, I got heavily into speaking, giving presentations at Easter Seals events, a Transitioning Resource Fair organized by the Children's Treatment Centre I had gone to years before, and to classes at Ottawa's two universities. It was also at this time that I had been asked to be a part of the second Leaders of Tomorrow group.

After that, I started presenting on my own behalf, mostly to some of those same university classes and campers at Easter Seals Camp Merrywood.

Eventually, I would be diagnosed with Joubert syndrome in 2011 and go on to speak at the Joubert Foundation's conference in 2013, which itself would lead to a lot more opportunities.

An unintentional walk down memory lane and something I've never written about before. 

Cheers!