It's going to be a Big Night In
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You’ve got talent, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oxford County wants to showcase it on Saturday, Oct. 24 with a ‘Big Night In – Oxford’s Got Talent’ online event.
The original deadline for filing an application was Tuesday, Sept. 1, but the committee expected to push that date back.
Videos will need to be recorded by the end of September, but fill out your application now.
“The committee has to be a bit flexible with that (Sept. 1) date because we had some issues with our web page (www.bbbsoxford.ca/event/big-night-in).”
Contact liz.wizmervm@bigbrothersbigsisters.ca or call 519-537-6404 for more information.
“Parts of the event will be live, but all of the acts have to be pre-recorded,” said Liz Wismer-Van Meer, resource development manager.
“There’s not really an audition for this unless we have a really large number of applicants. For the most part we’re pretty confident that anybody that applies will be able to be part of the show. We hope to have a good number to fill a couple of hours for the evening.”
There is no fee to participate, she noted. Performances will be streamed on Facebook and possibly one other online platform.
“The only thing they have to do is provide us with a recording of their act so that we can ensure it’s proper content and fits in with something that can be considered family friendly.”
Any level of talent will be accepted and there are no age restrictions.
“We know that we have a lot of talented people, we have a lot of theatre and dance groups, singers and songwriters in our area, but we also know that there are people who do other awesome talented acts. That could be scootering, skateboarding, magic tricks, comedy acts, pet tricks. We’re looking for people that do trick shots – hockey, soccer, basketball – pretty much anything and everything is what we’re looking for to make it a really fun and diverse event for people to tune into.”
Guest judges will pick their top three winners, and there will be prizes.
“We’re working on having a live poll option as well, but that’s not guaranteed yet. It’s still in the works. We’re hoping to get the peoples’ choice option so they can vote live while they are actually watching it.”
All content will be pre-recorded by the talent or by a Big Brothers Big Sisters recording team in a safe environment.
“We are working with Bob Breen from Armor Pro Audio Visual Inc. to help us get everything put together for the event,” said Wismer-Van Meer. “Bob has quite the extensive recording background and he also has a team working on this project, so we’re very fortunate to have him and his team.”
Organizers have asked talent to stay within a three to three-and-a-half minutes recording time, but most early entries have been two to three minutes.
“Once they fill out their application on our website, I’ll get in touch with them and go over the details of what’s expected, timeline, and they can email it to us (through download software). Some of them have YouTube pages they shared their video from and linking it to us.”
Big Night In – Oxford’s Got Talent will replace this year’s Big Night Out Charity Ball, which is the largest fundraiser of the year for BBBS of Oxford.
“Last year we brought in almost $110,000 at that event, but we were able to shift it to a virtual event. The idea of talent show came from what other people were doing. Greg Morton, who is originally from Woodstock, and was on America’s Got Talent, he’s going to be the host for the night. He’s the one who suggested making this a talent show because it’s something that people from the community can get involved in as well.”
Funds will be raised through sponsorship and on the evening of the Big Night In through a ‘call to action’ (online donations).
It’s also an opportunity to share program information in short segments.
“We’ll have some of our volunteers explaining what the programs are, what it’s been like for them during the pandemic, what we’ve done to shift to still support all of our young people, how our virtual mentoring is working.”
The annual Battle of the Hors D’Oeuvres and Bid for Kids Sake fundraiser, which happens annually in Tillsonburg, had been scheduled in the spring this year and cancelled due to the pandemic.
The ‘battle’ has been replaced by a new campaign, Rally for Restaurants, that just started. Coupon booklets at participating Oxford businesses valued at more than $215 are being sold for $20.
“There are coupons you can use at different places throughout Oxford County – restaurants, cafes, bakeries – to keep it food related and support some of the businesses that we know have taken a hit during these COVID times.”
cabbott@postmedia.com
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