JEDDAH – An Overseas Filipino Worker in Jeddah won an international speech competition held at Jeddah's Village Restaurant recently. Marciano Par Jr. won the contest, part of the Area 7 Toastmasters Club Annual Speech competition, while Indian Riyaz Abubakkar Sarang was runner-up. The pair will represent the Area 7 Toastmaster Club to compete at division and district levels before the international contest in the USA, according to the organizers. Aside from the international speech contest, which was the highlight, the event also featured other categories such as humorous speech, won by Saudi Mosleh Al-Emrani with Indian Syed Naser as runner-up. Other contests included table topics that was won by Indian Cijo Mathew with Filipino Samer Asim as runner-up, and the speech evaluation contest that was won by Indian Riyaz Abubakkar with fellow compatriot Aboobacker Abdulrahman second. Groups that form part of the Area 7 Toastmaster Club include the ALJ Talkmasters Club, Eagle Toastmasters Club, The Council Toastmasters Club, Abha Arabic Toastmasters Club, Al-Mowhiba Toastmasters Club and Abha English Toastmasters Club. The club is headed by area governor Johnnygene Padillo, who also served as competition chairman. Committee members are Taher Subhan (contest planning and awards), Mohammed Sameer Kunan (finance), Daniah Adam (registration) and Roberto Perez (administration). Padillo praised the successful result of the competition and encouraged everyone to excel. The area's lieutenant governor Joey Villanueva encouraged the new members to stay committed to the the Toastmasters if they wanted to be successful professionally in life as well as happy and fulfilled. Division G Governor Reggie Maga expressed gratitude at the smooth flow of the event, adding that it demonstrated Toastmasters is a place to facilitate members' transformations as communicators and as leaders.
