Anyone familiar with Moldova?

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Being one of those people who is challenged to find China on a map, I had to look this one up. Small Eastern European country that came to my attention due to two dynamic women in my life. Melanie Goulter of Molee Fine Art and Julie Glandt of Carolina Adoptive Services are sisters that live in my hometown. Melanie  and I take yoga together, which is how I know them.  I had both Melanie and Julie on yesterday as guests on my radio show.  Their story is incredible.

Julie first traveled to Moldova in 2000 to work with the orphanages and was overwhelmed by the poverty she saw there. Extremely saddened and depressed, her sponsor there suggested she take her last day to visit some art museums to see the beauty offered there. She did, and was impressed. Artists over there undergo YEARS of strenuous training taking, for example, two years to practice drawing the human body before moving on to anything else.   She saw the art, thought about the poverty, and decided something had to be done.

She came back to North Carolina and talked to Melanie and their brother, convinced them to empty their savings, everyone went back to Moldova and Melanie (who was already in the home decor industry) started investing in artists.  She now has a thriving business as an art dealer at Molee Fine Art and travels to Moldova to discover paintings and new talent, as well as bringing artists over to stay with her family here in the States so they can tour and promote their work.

Julie was awarded a medal of honor by the President of Moldova for her work with children and villages.

These are simply two amazing women and what I find more amazing is they live only several blocks from me! There are extraordinary people in the world if we only take the time to listen to them. And the most extraordinary people, more often than not, are the "regular" people living right next door to you and me.

Here's to being extraordinary...

World's Most Boring Speech?

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I'm delivering a 15-minute speech tomorrow in my Toastmaster's club which may prove to be the world's most boring speech. Well--that's not true. I do have a leg up on Bush (a tip, Mr. President:  look away just occasionally from the teleprompter). But it's hard to get jazzed about a speech I have little enthusiasm for.

Toastmasters has different designations, one of which is "Competent Leader." To achieve this goal, you need to hold a club office and deliver 2 speeches from the Successful Club Series. The Successful Club Series is a group of speeches put together by Toastmasters International on how to organize and conduct good club meetings. 

The supposedly good part about the speeches is that they're already written.  A s a member, you just have to deliver them. However, I'm presenting a Successful Club Speech called "Moments of Truth, " which deals with how members form opinions on Toastmaster clubs based on any number of small episodes such as if they were greeted at the door, did the meeting start on time, were they invited to join, etc.  I find the speech as prepared to be a total snore. "Greet guests warmly and by name." --Really? I have to explain that to people? How about using a little common sense...

So I've "done a Dena" and jazzed up the speech, adding personal examples and reorganizing it. I'm still bored with the topic but I've at least got it to a level I find acceptable.  And that's the key to any speech--make it your own. I have a slight advantage in that I'm peppy and  compensate for lack of interesting content through sheer force of personality. But that's cheating and something I try not to rely too heavily upon. 

So about 90 minutes today will be spent periodically practicing a 15-minute speech. After this, I've got one more speech to do to reach my Competent Leader designation (and how about that--could it be more bland? Might as well congratulate members on reaching barely mediocre status.  I think we should have titles like, "Worthy of Leading World Domination I" status.") and 2 more speeches to reach my Advanced Toastmaster, Bronze designation for having given 20 prepared speeches.

Think of me tomorrow when I'll be reminding people to "greet guests warmly" and "start meetings on time." I just hope my teleprompter works...

Camera Ready

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On Friday, I walked into the Greensboro Women's Resource Center for a graduation ceremony. The 15 women in the New Choices program (job-readiness training for displaced homemakers) had completed their 40-hour program and were celebrating with certificates, cake, and individual recognition.

I arrived early and decided to slip upstairs to see Ashley, the Director of the Center and my  supervisor when I ran the New Choices program.  There was a TV crew in the lobby as I walked by.  "Are you Lisa?" they asked. Lisa is the PR director for the Center.  I shook my head and continued on.

 Upstairs, I walked into Ashley's office were she and Lisa stood conferring. "Hello!" they both gushed a bit too enthusiastically when I walked in the door. "Hi," I said and nodded to Lisa. "There's a camera crew downstairs looking for you."

Lisa grabbed my arm. "Listen,  how would you like to do me a big favor?" The camera crew was there to interview Lisa about general background on the Center--who they serve, who's eligible, their mission, etc. "Would you do it?" she asked.  (For personal reasons I won't go into here, Lisa was feeling a bit shy about appearing on camera).

And that's how I found myself being interviewed on camera five minutes later. Thank God I'd dressed decent that day. (I'd come close to the leaving the house in my Old Navy t-shirt that proclaims, "I Love Mom.")  The piece I was interviewed for is part of a larger production for Guilford County Schools and will also be translated into Spanish.

My 15-minutes (or rather, 1 minute) of fame complete, I walked into the graduation room. The New Choices program coordinator informed me her scheduled speaker had cancelled and would I mind saying a few words?  I was thrilled to--I hold a warm place in my heart for the women who gradate the New Choices Program... I can't say enough about their dedication and courage and hope at a better life.

So it was quite the media morning. I love how life is like that--you think you're showing up to sit in the back of a room and applaud and the next moment you're being miked for TV and making a small speech.  Makes getting out of bed each day just that much more interesting.

You may be scooping kitty poop out of the litter box right now, but who knows what magic the day holds?