A sense of joy and gratitude filled the air at the year-end meeting of Two Oceans Toastmasters Club in Fish Hoek, Cape Town. We have made it through the most difficult year ever. For this we are grateful.  It is in this spirit that the theme of our year-end meeting was “Pay it Forward”.  We were called to action to acknowledge the reason for the season – a time of giving and reaching out to those less fortunate. We made up a spectacular festive hamper to raffle and sold tickets to members.

We also included a slot called Fun Fines.  This involved a fine master who was most astute at fining members for “transgressions” observed during the meeting as well as obvious faux pas experienced and shared during the last few months.  James, our Fun Fines master was indeed masterful and had us in stitches with his creative, quirky observations.  “Infringements” such as Phone Fancies (members peeping at their phones during meetings); Top UM champ, the Hottest member and the Ice King / Queen, (relating to their body temperature on entry), the Zoomies,  (members who prefer Zoom to the physical meeting), the Worst Whatsapper (a member who is extremely active on the group) and Top Tears (for the person delivering the most emotional speech and shedding a tear or two) were fined! The generous members joined in with gusto and dug deep to fill James’ bowler hat to overflowing with monetary gifts and pledges.  A total of R3 000 was raised to pay forward My Father’s House, our charity of choice. According to Pastor Shaddie Valayadum, who runs this outreach programme, our donation equates to 300 meals!  What a privilege to be part of such a worthy cause.

Should anyone want to make a donation, here is access to the link

(http://www.myfathershouse.org.za   for more information)