District 53 is sad to report the passing of a Past Area Director and District Table Topics contest winner, Jennifer X Mighty, a member of Talk It Up Toastmasters #8045, in Windsor, CT. She was fifty-three years old, and leaves behind a son, Kristian, as well as her mother, a brother and four sisters, and a loving partner John Haywood, Jr.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she moved to the United States at an early age and graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Professional Accounting. She worked for much of her professional career at United Technologies in various Finance departments
Jennifer joined Toastmasters through the Talk It Up Toastmasters club in January 2015, and competed at the fall Table Topics Contest that year in the District contest. She was an Area Director in the 2017-18 year, serving for Area 53 in the Windsor area under then-Division Director Andrew Watt. She was also heavily involved in helping the Carribbean American Toastmasters Club of Hartford, commonly known as CATCH, #5187872. A Past President of CATCH, John Rhone, said that while her own busy schedule prevented her from joining the club, she was a constant promoter and supporter of its mission, and a brand ambassador for a club she had not represented. She also strived to build a woman-centered Toastmasters club for the many inspiring women of color she met in the African-American, Caribbean-American, and Latino communities around Hartford.
Past President of Talk It Up Toastmasters, and current PublicRelations Manager Mohan Padamati said, “Jennifer was a great woman to work with. She brought lot of value to the Talk It Up Toastmasters club through her unique leadership & communication style. She was very creative in Table Topics speaking and gave such effective evaluations that helped us all improve. My deepest condolences to her family.”
Another Toastmaster, past Division Director Heather Turner DTM, said, “Jennifer Mighty was always a vibrant presence in District 53 and especially in the Windsor-Hartford area. I very much appreciated her help with projects we worked together on over the years in the Divisions she and I were both involved with. I have and always will, appreciate and admire her positive and enthusiastic attitude and her willingness, selflessness and great heartedness to go out of her way to help others. She was a talented speaker and a truly exceptional person. She will be greatly missed.”
Jennifer believed in service to a greater community, and treated her Toastmasters leadership experiences as practice for the other things she wanted to achieve. Past District Director Andrew Watt DTM, recalled her, “Jennifer was like a stream of fresh lava, or a brand new steam engine — steady, uncompromising, full of fire, and always certain about what she was going to do next.”