Chch woman wins top contest with humour

Press, 25 July 1989, Page 7

Chch woman wins top contest with humour

By

JENNY LONG

A Christchurch woman, Mrs Heather Hodges, has won an international speech contest with a humorous look at the image of women. The contest, in Las Vegas, was open to all members of International Training in Communication (formerly called Toastmistresses). Mrs Hodge’s topic, “Sight — Visual Perfection,” described how women are brainwashed into thinking “thin is perfect.”

The mainly American , audience had reacted well to the topic and to the humour, Mrs Hodges said. “All my speeches are humorous, but there is a message,” she said. Mrs Hodges, a member of I.T.C. for eight years, had won her way through

local and national New Zealand finals to compete in Las Vegas. Twenty-nine competitors from around the world were whittled to six finalists in the early days

of the competition in Las Vegas. The final, with a banquet, was held in the ballroom of Bally’s Hotel in front of about 1200 people. Contestants chose their speeches from one of the three they had given in their home countries in the early rounds. Contestants are given a choice of three topics, usually only a word or a phrase, and must build their speech ideas from that.

Mrs Hodges chose the word, sight. “I usually pin the words to the notice board, and one keeps coming back to you.”

Speeches must be between five and eight minutes long, and anybody with a speech more than one second outside that limit is disqualified.

Speech, page 12