Living OUT LOUD

Wow! This year has gone by fast. We have been to many different platforms out in

the community and I am so glad that I got to be a part of loving our community. We’ve

been to retirement homes, libraries, a home for mentally disabled adults and many more

platforms our members have set-up on their own.


 This last Wednesday we had the privilege to  present at Mountain View Care Center retirement home. We have been to this retirement home a few times and I have always very much enjoyed going. But this

week going to Mountain View was different. We were short on presentations and we

had an hour to fill. I didn’t really know what to do, and for some reason I wasn’t at all

stressed about how many presentations we had. My intension for this platform was

to present and then spend the rest of the time speaking to the residents.  That is what we did and it was truly

amazing. I saw faces light up as we came up and shook their hands, and as little kids

came and asked the residents how their day was going. I realized that this was what a platform

actually is. A platform isn't about the amount of speeches we have, and who attends from our chapter.

Those things are good but the real reason is to spend time with the people in our

community and show them Christ’s light by our attitudes and actions.

 Right before we were about to leave one of the residents got up and read us a letter. This letter was

addressed to us and talked about how much we had blessed them and how thankful

they were for us. I was truly blessed by these people and I learned what a platform

really is all about. It’s about showing love.....It’s about caring....It’s about giving your

time....It’s about showing Christ. It’s all about LIVING OUT LOUD!

Thank You OUT LOUD pouring out your life to the community!

with JOY,

Your Community Ambassador, Kaylin Rutkowski

What's so awesome about tournaments, anyway?

I went to my first tournament two years ago. As a first-timer for a tournament, I can remember not really being sure what to expect. I was nervous, but beyond that, I wasn’t sure how things were going to work, or how I was going handle everything. I’ve been to quite a few tournaments since then, and one thing remains consistent; I always learn a lot. 

There are a lot of things I can think of personally that make a tournament experience valuable, and...almost none of them have anything to do with competition. ICC’s focus is on blessing the community, so it isn’t really a surprise that it worked that way for me. 

When I went to my first tournament, I learned that tournaments are helpful because they help to set a deadline. I was working on a speech for YSG at the time, and was dragging my feet on it. When I decided that I was going to do that speech at the tournament, I suddenly had a deadline that was very fast approaching. Because I’m a person that’s pretty deadline-driven, I found it helpful to have a set time that I had to be done, and a standard that was beyond something that I could give myself. 

Another thing that the tournament gave me is a good grasp of ways I could improve my speech. Since I’d be giving my speech in the community, having evaluators from the community is great guidance. The short two or three minutes of critique that we give at chapter are useful, but having two or three ballots for one speech in just one round, really helped me get a good perspective. I was able to see patterns with many people telling me the same things, which helped me to weigh which things I should keep in my speech, and what exactly I could improve on. 

On average, most of us don’t speak on a platform two or three times a day with up to four or five speeches. The tournament gives the opportunity to do just that. Like so many other things, the more you speak in the public, the more comfortable you get with it. Being scheduled to speak as much as I was at the tournament boosted my confidence so much. It didn’t make me want more competition, but it did make me more confident and willing to command the public platform. 

The tournament isn’t something that’s necessary for communication, but it does teach you a lot in a short amount of time. I’m still learning from the tournaments. Chances are, if you go to one, you’ll see me there. Until then, though, I hope this gave you a good glimpse of what a tournament is all about.

Jocelyn