Page 6 - voicesdec2014
P. 6
ide Prison Walls—The Gift of Toastmasters
By Jan Jackson, ACG, ALB
It took 80 years for the gift of a real Toastmasters club to make it inside the walls of the Oregon State
Penitentiary. However, recognizing the benefits didn’t take very long. Capital Toastmasters #693720 is
thought to be one of the first award-winning
correctional institution clubs in existence.
It took 80 years for the gift of a real
Toastmasters club to make it inside the
walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary.
However, recognizing the benefits didn’t
take very long. Capital Toastmasters
#693720 is thought to be one of the first
award-winning correctional institution
clubs in existence.
Its members have achieved the President’s
Distinguished Award for seven years in a
row and they can (and do) boast about competing and winning debate tournaments with Willamette,
George Fox, Gonzaga, Northwest and Seattle Universities, University of Washington Bothell, and
Linfield, Corban, Lane and Lewis & Clark Colleges.
Club President Ron Edgemon, who has completed all but the last seven years of a 25-year sentence,
served as Area 42 and Division C Governor, and earned his Distinguished Toastmaster Award (DTM)
while incarcerated. Edgemon, administrative clerk of the prisons activities department, says he also
uses the skills he learned in Toastmasters in his job as director of the Car & Bike Show and coordinator
of Alternatives To Violence program. Those skills also help him work with staff and clubs to schedule
events for the year, oversee prison admission and orientation classes for new guys coming in, and
encourage Toastmaster members to present portions of the class.
Edgemon, who credits his fellow Toastmasters, prison staff and past District 7 Governor Allan Edinger,
DTM, for the program’s success, recognizes that it is the gift of
Toastmasters that has allowed him to develop his communication
and leadership skills. As a result, he dedicated his life to serving
others with an emphasis on the reduction of crime and
incarceration. This includes working with at-risk community
members changing their lives and choices, and with helping those
in prison learn new skills for a more successful reentry to society.
Ron Edgemon, DTM and Allan Edinger, DTM “I was skeptical and feared that some people may not stay
involved when Allan came to talk to us about changing from our free Capital Gavel Club to one I
thought was going to be the same except that now we would have to pay for it for,” Edgemon said.
“However, what actually happened was - we started learning to communicate. Going step-by-step
through the manuals we were learning things that were brand new to us - like how to give and
receive positive and negative feedback, give and accept praise and earn and publicly accept awards.
(Continued on page 6)
6
By Jan Jackson, ACG, ALB
It took 80 years for the gift of a real Toastmasters club to make it inside the walls of the Oregon State
Penitentiary. However, recognizing the benefits didn’t take very long. Capital Toastmasters #693720 is
thought to be one of the first award-winning
correctional institution clubs in existence.
It took 80 years for the gift of a real
Toastmasters club to make it inside the
walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary.
However, recognizing the benefits didn’t
take very long. Capital Toastmasters
#693720 is thought to be one of the first
award-winning correctional institution
clubs in existence.
Its members have achieved the President’s
Distinguished Award for seven years in a
row and they can (and do) boast about competing and winning debate tournaments with Willamette,
George Fox, Gonzaga, Northwest and Seattle Universities, University of Washington Bothell, and
Linfield, Corban, Lane and Lewis & Clark Colleges.
Club President Ron Edgemon, who has completed all but the last seven years of a 25-year sentence,
served as Area 42 and Division C Governor, and earned his Distinguished Toastmaster Award (DTM)
while incarcerated. Edgemon, administrative clerk of the prisons activities department, says he also
uses the skills he learned in Toastmasters in his job as director of the Car & Bike Show and coordinator
of Alternatives To Violence program. Those skills also help him work with staff and clubs to schedule
events for the year, oversee prison admission and orientation classes for new guys coming in, and
encourage Toastmaster members to present portions of the class.
Edgemon, who credits his fellow Toastmasters, prison staff and past District 7 Governor Allan Edinger,
DTM, for the program’s success, recognizes that it is the gift of
Toastmasters that has allowed him to develop his communication
and leadership skills. As a result, he dedicated his life to serving
others with an emphasis on the reduction of crime and
incarceration. This includes working with at-risk community
members changing their lives and choices, and with helping those
in prison learn new skills for a more successful reentry to society.
Ron Edgemon, DTM and Allan Edinger, DTM “I was skeptical and feared that some people may not stay
involved when Allan came to talk to us about changing from our free Capital Gavel Club to one I
thought was going to be the same except that now we would have to pay for it for,” Edgemon said.
“However, what actually happened was - we started learning to communicate. Going step-by-step
through the manuals we were learning things that were brand new to us - like how to give and
receive positive and negative feedback, give and accept praise and earn and publicly accept awards.
(Continued on page 6)
6
