This year marked the second annual talent show for Johnston’s Big Give. Members of the talent show committee are sophomores Hailey Cooper and Senad Besic, juniors Shelby Fechner and Katrina Fey, and junior and head of the committee Craig O’Keefe.

Johnston’s Big Give is an annual fundraiser held by the Johnston student council. This year the items and money raised are going to the Partnership Place and the organizations that go along with it. This year’s talent show raised a little over $1500.

The committee began preparing for the talent show in December. They held auditions on Jan. 17, and all the acts that tried out were selected to perform. There were 12 acts total, made up of soloists, duets, trios, small groups, bands, and a large group.

The talent show was held on Jan. 31.

The emcee, senior Taylor Slack, was a huge success, but was forced to stall when a microphone died before one of the acts. Junior Jeremy Caracci had to run to Walgreens to buy new batteries so they had enough microphones for one of the groups to perform. Aside from that, the show ran very smoothly.

“Overall it was very stressful but when the day came it ran smoothly and things fell into place where they needed to be,” O’Keefe said.

The judges were sophomore Reid Sinnett, junior Monica Gagne, seniors Reid Lefler and Courtney Norelius, and guidance secretary Sarah Marckmann.

The judges awarded the title of honorable mention to four acts:

“Good Riddance” Devon Wood

“Only Just the Way You Truly Are” Melia Black, Karsen Kramer, Emily Scott, Simmone Doswell, and Laura Smalley

“What Makes You Beautiful” Dragon Dreamers

“Fireman Remix” (Tres Comocozis) Spencer Moser, Tyler Smaha, Matthew Hanstad

The winner of the talent show was junior Andrew Mills who performed his poem “Deep.” Mills wrote the poem in late November and memorized it in December for the final part of his ELP project.

Mills decided to try out for the talent show because he was proud of his poem and wanted to share it with the school.

“I was actually a lot more nervous during the run through because that was the first time I had performed it before multiple people, but when I actually got on the stage it wasn’t so bad.” Mills said.

He was both happy and surprised by his win because of all the talent in the show. This semester he is going to focus on performing more of his poetry as part of his ELP project.

For a DVD of the talent show, contact student council advisor Chris Beguhn.