GUEST COMMENTARY: BY DEBORAH ANDERSON PRATT
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama, October 20, 2022 — Public Speaking or being able to effectively communicate is a skill that young people should develop at an early age to help them achieve success in life. Over my eighteen years as a Toastmaster, I’ve had the privilege of working with many young people to help them develop this vital skill, be it as a Speech Coach or a judge in a speech competition. It is always a joy for me to see young people be able to stand before an audience and confidently and eloquently deliver a speech.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of serving as a judge, as I have done for many years, for the Ministry of Education’s Annual Debate Competition. Following this, I attended the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s National Youth Month Speech Competition to give my support to the contestants after hosting a speech workshop for them a few weeks ago.
After an amazing competition, where I was so impressed by speakers in both the Junior and Senior categories, I was pleasantly surprised to be honored by the Ministry for helping to establish the Youth Month Speech Competition on Grand Bahama in 2010 and assisting with coordinating the competition annually.
Thanks to Mrs. Carla Brown-Roker, Programs Coordinator for the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, and Dr. Kenneth A. Miller, Youth Officer, who himself was a contestant in the first Youth Month competition, for this honor. Very much appreciated.
As October is also Toastmasters Month, I must give credit to this esteemed organization for helping me to develop my public speaking skills and encourage anyone interested in developing this life-changing skill, to visit a Toastmasters Club near you. #DistinguishedToastmaster #CorporateTrainer #MotivationalSpeaker #LifeCoach
EDITOR’S NOTE: I decided to share this excellently written post by Deborah Anderson Pratt as a Guest
Commentary with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE for more reasons than one. For starters, I am exceptionally proud of the contributions being made to the Grand Bahama community by Deborah, who wrote a column for The Freeport News when I was its Editor (2003 –2009).
Another reason I decided to share it is that Carla Brown-Roker is my darling niece, the youngest of my late brother Simeon “Sugar B” Brown’s three children – the others being Simeon R. Brown, who in my view is one of the best criminal lawyers in The Bahamas, and Valery Brown-Alce, who has been a marketing director with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism in several areas of the United States for many years.
Meanwhile, Carla has been involved in education in Grand Bahama for many years, and she has a son, Samuel Brown, who repeatedly won speech competitions when he was a student at Grand Bahama Catholic High. He is currently a lawyer based in Nassau.
It is not surprising that all three of my brother “Sugar B’s” children are well-educated because seeing to it that they received a higher education was a top priority in his life. What’s more, “Sugar B” who was three years older than me, was the best “big brother” a young boy like myself could have while we were growing up at Stanyard Creek, Andros.
He was extremely smart and skilled in various crafts and taught me have to make and spin my first top. We were inseparable growing up, but at the age of 14, he was one of several young men at Stanyard Creek who mastered the communication skill of telegraphy, the long-distance transmission of messages using symbolic codes that was the standard means of communications back in the days before telephones.
Having mastered the skill of telegraphy, “Sugar B” was hired by the Bahamas Telecommunications Department and sent to West End, Grand Bahama, where he met and fell in love with a beautiful young West End girl, Ogletta Smith. They eventually got married and produced the three children mentioned above.
Another reason why I decided to share Deborah Anderson Pratt’s post as a Guest Commentary is that since the closure of The Freeport News, I have been on a campaign to establish my online publication BAHAMAS CHRONICLE as an alternative news source to fill the “news void” created by the closure of the Freeport News. Before Hurricane Dorian devasted Grand Bahama in September of 2019, my public relations company THE BROWN AGENCY LLC had a number of clients in Freeport that used my promotional services. However, the majority of those clients no longer could afford to use my PR services after Dorian, although my promotional rates are very reasonable.
BAHAMAS CHRONICLE has a huge following among Bahamians in the diaspora across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and, of course, The Bahamas as well as the wider Caribbean. You can check out BAHAMAS CHRONICLE at bahamaschronicle.com
