District girl off to national talent show

News Release
CLE

Thunder Bay, Ontario - Ten young performers vying for a piece of $3,000 worth of prize money took to the stage at the CLE fair. It was a memorable show for the capacity crowd that cheered on the competitors. The ten performances by competitors aged 15 to 18 included musicians, singers and actors.
Open to young performers between the ages of 13 and 21, this year marks the 5th year of the competition since it was revived in 2003. Joanne Waytowich (creator of Ivanka), Mario Crudo (Magnus Theatre), Marlo Dahl (Thunder Bay Legends) and music teacher Lisa Jack comprised the judges panel.
The performers competed earlier this summer against 50 competitors for a spot at the finals. First place winner, Brittany Hayes of Fort Frances performed a powerful rendition of “At Last”. Second place winner Shayne Stolz of Thunder Bay performed the old jazz classic “Misty”. Third place winner George Blacker of Thunder Bay played guitar and sang “Mud Football”. Brittany Hayes has won $1,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Toronto to compete and represent Northern Ontario at the National Youth Talent Search Awards. Second place winner Shayne Stolz was awarded $500 and George Blacker $250 for his third place win.
No one went home empty handed. Fourth to tenth place finalists all received $100 for making it to the top ten. This year’s finalists represented Thunder Bay, Fort Frances and Dorion. The remaining competitors included: Sam DiGiuseppe, Sean Fowler, Sarah Lewis, Evan Pang, Surround Sound (consisting of: Lisa Pike, Melissa Cook, Megan DeRoover, Sarah Grant) all from Thunder Bay and Nicole Jones from Dorion,
The CLE has committed to run the competition again in 2008. More information and videos of the competitors performances can be found on the CLE website www.cle.on.ca.