Local youths Jay Bailey, 17, and Shaun Fisk are one step closer to realizing their dream of hosting a unique talent show after Bailey was awarded the Dave Mikkelsen Award for Youth Dec. 18.
“I’m really excited,” she said.
The two were given the award by former Mayor Dave Mikkelsen and current Mayor Marshal Chalmers in a presentation during the Chestermere City Council meeting Dec. 18.
Bailey described her idea as a talent show and showcase where both performance talents and artistic talents can be shown and appreciated in the community.
“We just want a place where people…can submit artwork, not just physical talents, that we can auction off or they can just display,” said Bailey.
The idea has been circulating with the Synergy Youth Council for a while and the $1000 prize from the award has given them the seed money to make the talent show happen.
“We’ll still have to do some fundraising on top of this,” she said.
Even before she found out she had won the award, Bailey had started looking at potential venues for the show.
Since receiving the award she said it is really exciting to be able to move forward with this project.
The goal is to have the talent show in the spring of 2018 with the planning starting in earnest after Christmas.
The award is named after former Chestermere Mayor Dave Mikkelsen who is passionate about involving youth in the community.
As well as being named after him, Mikkelsen is involved in the selection process for the award.
He said that what he likes about the proposed talent show is the potential for it to engage youth who wouldn’t necessarily participate in a traditional talent show.
It is important for people to realize and be supported for their talents.
“All a lot of people don’t realize they have a talent, they just think they have a skill.
“And I think there’s an important difference there,” said Mikkelsen.
He beliefs that if Bailey and Fisk can promote the show properly that they’ll be able to reach and involve these youth.
He also likes that the money raised through auction of the youth art will be invested back into helping local youth through Synergy.
“The return of proceeds to Synergy to help more kids I think it was a smashing idea,” said Mikkelsen.
The potential for this idea to reach a large number of youth in Chestermere is what ultimately led to Mikkelsen and Mayor Chalmers choosing them for the award.
“The rubber hits the road now,” he said, “you’ve got your opportunity, you’ve got your money but now you have to do it.”
Mikkelsen is looking forward to attending the talent show in the Spring.
“I just think it’s a fun way too engage a whole bunch of people,” he said, “its just a neat, neat idea.”
