The JSC club Living for Giving raised $222 in a talent show fundraiser on Nov. 8, in which freshman Alexa Jakiela and sophmores Randy Strand and Nate Perrotte placed first.
The trio won a season pass to Smugglers’ Notch Resort with their cover of Ingrid Michaelson’s “You and I.”
Other prizes included a JSC t-shirt donated by the bookstore, a large specialty pizza donated by The Hub, and 25 points from Sodexo.
The director of the Think College program, Chris Kennedy, was the host for the show. The judges were student government association President Shane Bouthillette, director of First-Year Experience Margo Warden, director of Experiential Learning Ellen Hill, and behavioral sciences instructor Corbett Torrence.
First up was Addison Hill, singing along to Weird Al Yankovic’s “Amish Paradise,” complete with outlandish gestures and a crowd-pleasing marker mustache. Hill was followed up by Carrie Baker and Brandon Zick, who recited the poem “The End of the Raven,” an anonymous parody of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” from the point of view of Edgar Allan Poe’s cat.
Next up was Morrisville resident Thorin Bingham, a volunteer firefighter for the Elmore fire department, showing how quickly he can suit up for a fire. As Kennedy held the stopwatch, Bingham put on all of his gear in 55 seconds. Muzzy Wronski followed him up with a performance on the flute, and Britney Maguire took the stage to show off her unusual ability with flexing the tendons in her neck.
Ashley Trauner went onstage next, singing along to Miley Cyrus’ “When I Look at You.” While Trauner’s voice was nearly obscured by the volume of the song, she sang with vigor and emotion that reached the energetic crowd. Matt Bean kept up the energy with a lively fiddle tune that immediately set the audience to stamping their feet, whooping, and clapping in time.
Taking the stage with her guitar, Ally Bataille set a quieter mood with an instrumental and vocal cover of Trevor Hall’s “Te Amo.”
Next to perform were Ben Watson and James Love, quickly raising the energy of the room with an impressive breakdancing routine.
The event was stalled for a few minutes as the tech crew tried to find the song for the next act, performed by Perrotte. Handling the awkward moment well, Kennedy told jokes, getting the audience to join in. Unfortunately the song couldn’t be found, so the show continued on with the next act, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Times They Are A-Changing” performed by Nick Symula.
Despite not being able to perform his own act, Perrotte was still able to get up onstage as part of the second-to-last performance of the night, joining Strand and Jakiela in their winning cover. Bataille then replaced Jakiela and Perrotte for a duet with Strand, covering “Someone Like You” by Adele.
Watson and Love won second place, Bean won third, and Bataille placed fourth.
The money raised for the event will be donated to the Johnson Food Shelf, the Clarina Howards Nichols House Center, and the Lamoille County Humane Society.
