Prior to 2000, a Toastmasters club existed briefly in Park City.
In 2000, Jon Henry and Allen Stockbridge inquired separately with Toastmasters International about starting a club in Park City, Utah. The District leadership soon brought the two together with Toastmasters from Salt Lake City to begin the process of chartering a club in Park City again. Soon, with local advertising on KPCW and in the Park Record, the necessary number of people (20) were gathered to start another club.
Charter Members: Jeanie Anderson, Jason Blake, Kaz Burns, Tom Cook, Alexis Duce, Rich Fine, Jennifer Gaines, Merry Haugen, Jon Henry, John Jaicks, Rose Johnson, Danny Kim, Scott McClelland, Joe Mitchell, Bill Mullen, Barbara Peters, Kacy Quinley, Trisha Skalicky, Allen Stockbridge, Laree Thomas, Emmy Walsh, and Letty Workman.
Since chartering a club in 2000, the club has remained healthy with an active membership of between 15 and 30 people. If you have visited a Toastmaster club before, you may note that each club has its own personality. The Park City Toastmasters Club has a distinct tone: the membership is cosmopolitan and professional, yet very easy-going and fun-loving. The club does not operate as rigidly or business-like as some other clubs do, and yet we are host to a variety of professions (real estate, finance, travel, mediation, personal coaching, design, teaching, administration, recreation, piloting, etc.)
In 2008, the club experienced tremendous growth. A healthy club is considered to be one that has 20 or more members. We have had as many as 43 at once! During the 2008/2009 Toastmaster year we gained 43 new members. Understand that Toastmasters can be a revolving door with members moving away, getting new jobs or commitments, and subsequently leaving the club. But our club caught the attention of the Area, Division, and District for its rapid growth and health.
Also, in 2008 the club became more active and competitive in speech contests. In 2008, Jon Henry won the Division Tall Tales contest and Mike Hodge won the District Humorous contest. In 2009, Andy Cier won the District Humorous contest and Jon Henry won the District Evaluation Contest. In 2010, Andy Cier won the Division Humorous Contest. In 2011, Missy Hilton won the Division International Speech Contest. Other members have gone on to win Area and Division contests as well.
Beginning around 2008 the club started getting involved in the leadership of the Toastmaster Leadership Institute and members Lynn Ware Peek, Julio Garraued, and Jon Henry have led breakout sessions and workshops. In 2011, Mike Hodge, Sue Ann Kern, and Jon Henry led poster sessions and workshops at the Spring District Conference.
In 2009, member Lynn Ware Peak approached the local radio station, KPCW, with the idea to start a new local story program entitled Tales from the Wasatch Back, which went on the air for about three years with Lynn being the main writer. Lynn recruited several Park City Toastmasters to contribute to the program as well. Those writers included Jon Henry, Missy Hilton, David Bullock, and a few others. Missy went on to create with Lynn another radio program called the Mountain Life, which still runs today. Lynn, Missy, and Jon all won Utah Broadcasting awards for their contributions.
A few years later, Dave Bullock and Cathy Barker, also members, went on to create The Story Mine, a Sunday morning show featuring stories from locals.
In 2012, member Stacy Dymalski went on to win club, area, division, and district in the International Speech contest. This is the premier speech contest of Toastmasters and Stacy represented District 15 in the Semi-finals in Florida that year. Although she didn’t win, it is still a big deal to go that far, especially after discovering that many contestants bring a coaching team with them to help them win, which Stacy did not do.
Also in 2012, Julio Garreaud became our first member to achieve his DTM, Distinguished Toastmaster Award.
Park City has also contributed several Area Governors over the years – Patricia Russell (’07), Julio Garraeaud (’08), Lynn Ware Peek (’09), John Concannon (’10), Jon Henry (2011-2012), Laurie Banks (2012-2013), Bonny Armstrong (2020-2021), and Gregg Davison (2020-2021). Sue Ann Kern served as District Public Relations Officer (2014/2015).
On February 13th, 2016, the Park City Toastmasters Club hosted the Division D officer training, a.k.a. the Big Bad Ballyhoo, and raised the bar significantly for this kind of Toastmaster event. The bar was raised through sponsorship, teamwork, strong presenters, excellent food, beneficial facilitators, respecting people’s time (promptness), and including the general public with attendance. We had overwhelmingly positive comments afterward, about sixty people in attendance, and were asked to host the 2017 DISTRICT Spring conference.
Recently, in 2021 Park City Toastmasters, was voted District 15 Club Of The Year (District 15 is a four-state area that includes approximately 70 clubs). For the past eight consecutive years, our club has earned the title of President’s Distinguished Club – the highest level of recognition available to any club by meeting a minimum of nine of the ten goals needed. We are proud to say we have successfully earned this President’s Distinguished Club title for thirteen of our 21-year club history.
