Community center puts out
call for talented youngsters
FREEHOLD — Grab your tap shoes, guitar or magic tricks; polish up your vocal chords or comedy routine.
Take whatever makes you unique and bring it over to the YMCA Community Center on Center Street to audition for the center’s first Dance and Talent Showcase to be held Feb. 7.
According to community center Outreach Director Mel O’Neal, the festivities that evening will begin at 7 p.m. and run until 11 p.m. The showcase, "Raise Da Roof," will feature a community children’s talent search.
Anyone wishing to participate in the talent showcase should call the community center at (732) 845-5273 or stop by the community center to see O’Neal and set up an audition.
"We’re trying to see what kind of talent we have here in the borough," O’Neal said, adding that children in grades five through eight are welcome to bring their talent, whatever it may be, to the center to audition for a spot in the show.
"Singing, dancing, poetry readings, magic and playing a musical instrument would all be acceptable," O’Neal said. "There’s really no limit to the type of talent a child can bring to the showcase."
Music for the Feb. 7 event will be provided by Mix Master Motion and refreshments will be provided.
The winner of the talent contest will receive a tour of Authority Records, Eatontown, and recording time, he said.
"We have some members who would like to become recording artists," O’Neal said. "A tour of the studio may show youngsters another side of the business such as actually creating the music. It can show them the technical side of making music."
Gift certificates for music will be awarded to the second- and third-place finishers, according to the director.
A $5 cover charge will go to the YCares Financial Assistance Program. This program, according to O’Neal, is a fund created so that no child need ever be turned away from programs at the YMCA because of an inability to pay.
— Clare Marie Celano