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PHILIPSBURG:--- Local islander Distinguished Toastmaster Brenda Maynard has led the Toastmasters Clubs of the Caribbean to achieve the highest award recognized by Toastmasters International Smedley Distinguished. This is the first time in history that District 81 Caribbean Toastmasters has achieved this status.

DD Maynard ran her year under the theme, Breaking Barriers Now and Beyond. Her leadership truly reflected that goal and has placed an unforgettable very fluffy feather in the Caribbeans Toastmasters cap. District Director Maynard applauds Toastmasters International for structuring and developing her leadership skills. She was able to apply these tools and methods in both her professional and personal life which has resulted in great success and opportunities to further develop her communication and leadership skills. Today, because of all of our Toastmasters in District 81, we all have the privilege of saying, District 81 - Smedley Distinguished! Celebrating every small step brings automatic success, therefore each Toastmaster that completed his or her journey has contributed to the success of District 81.

The Toastmasters Smedley Distinguished award is named after the organizations founder Ralph Smedley. This nonprofit educational organization teaches communication and leadership skills. Amongst 122 global Districts, to date, only four have achieved Smedley Distinguished of which District 81 is proud to be in la crme de la crme. The Smedley Distinguished Award is given to Districts who over a 12-month period maintained an eight percent growth in three areas: paid clubs, membership, and Distinguished Clubs. District 81 was able to secure 199 paid Clubs, retained and grew the membership to almost 5, 000 Members, and celebrate the fact that over 148 Clubs achieve the Distinguished Club award, and these numbers are projected to increase by June 30, 2021 the end of the Toastmaster year.

Equally impressive is that District 81 is the only district in the Western Hemisphere to achieve Smedley Distinguished status beating North & South America. We are poised to receive additional awards, however, as of today, we are ranked first in the Region in three categories and the top ten in the World categories in three other categories. Additionally, District 81 surpassed all 15 Districts under Region 8 in the number of paid clubs, membership numbers, and Distinguished Clubs. To date, nine out of the 10 Divisions are Select Distinguished and President Distinguished; 43 out of the 49 Areas are Distinguished, Select Distinguished, and Presidents Distinguished; and of the 199 Clubs, 148 are Distinguished, Select Distinguished, with 128 as Presidents Distinguished.

District Director (DD) Brenda Maynard has been engaged in full-time employment at the government of Sint Maarten for more than 25 years and has served in various roles, the most recent as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports. Currently, DD Maynard is an active member of four Clubs: Soualiga Corporate Toastmasters Club, Soualiga Elite Toastmasters Club, MED TECH, and Leaders Beyond Borders Toastmasters Club.

At the District level, DD Maynard has served as Division E Director, Club Growth Director (CGD) in 2018 - 2019 where she was successful with her team to gain third place in Membership Retention worldwide for District 81. During 2019-2020 as Program Quality Director (PQD), she earned the Toastmasters International (TI) prestigious PQD Excellence award. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the District was able to focus on education and training programs and assisted the clubs in achieving their Distinguished Club Program (DCP) goals by helping members complete their educational and leadership projects. Now, she is proudly the first District Director of 81 to achieve Smedley Distinguished.

District 81s Executive Team was comprised of District Director - Brenda Maynard (Sint Maarten), Program Quality Director - Innocent Richard (Haiti), Club Growth Director Pierre Mingot (Haiti), Public Relations Manager Roslyn A. Douglas (Grenada), Administration Manager Linette Gibs (Sint Maarten), Finance Manager Carti Sophia (St. Martin) and Immediate Past District Director - Fabiola Cleofa (Curacao).

District 81 is comprised of the following countries: Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Cayman Island, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Eustatius, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos.

Congratulations District 81 Caribbean Toastmasters.