It may not be quite the same as America’s Got Talent, but Steph VanDeSype is hoping to see just as many wacky and impressive talents during the Town of Assiniboia’s social media contest Assiniboia Has Talent.
As the recreation and community wellness manager in Assiniboia, VanDeSype wanted to debut a fun community activity to boost people’s spirits while stuck at home and social distancing.
“Right now my department's not fun because all the fun stuff's cancelled. And so I've been dreaming of something that's fun and can make people laugh,” said VanDeSype.
Assiniboia Has Talent began on March 30, welcoming anyone with an interesting talent to share their photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram to participate.
VanDeSype is hoping to see the full spectrum of fun talents, and that means everything from the expected singing and dancing to the unexpected, like cool tricks or trampoline flips, or lip-synching performances.
“It doesn't have to be singing or dancing or musical instruments. I want to see their dogs do fancy tricks, or kids showing off stick-handling skills, or if somebody has a recipe they've perfected, to post pictures of the finished product and share the recipe, said VanDeSype. “Anything that somebody is good at and proud of, I want to see it.”
The online talent contest will run until April 10, and contestants will be entered into a random draw at the end of each day for a gift card to a local Assiniboia business — which will be mailed out to winners, to comply with social distancing.
VanDeSype has been keeping the Town of Assiniboia’s Recreation & Community Wellness Facebook page updated with her own daily joke videos, and now she wants to see some new faces to help entertain the community.
VanDeSype hopes the contest will draw in people from all over the place, not just Assiniboia, to take part.
“The whole point is to make people laugh, and show each other and get people talking about something other than what is going on in the world right now, even if it's just a distraction for two minutes,” said VanDeSype.
Anyone interested in taking part can join the Assiniboia Has Talent Facebook group to post their entry, which already has over 200 members and some great posts already, or post their entry on Instagram using the hashtag #AssiniboiaHasTalent.
