Pickering Ward Talent Show!

Saturday, March 19th, the Pickering Ward held a Talent Show that was a lot of fun.  The evening was well attended and I was astounded by the wealth of talents in our little ward family.  The evening was the brain child of McKenna Burns, one of our Young Women.  She and our good Bishop's wife, Mary Beth Rodriguez, put many hours into ensuring that everyone had a terrific time.   Here I am with Rudy Ramirez, our "Elvis", and Spencer Rose, who not only performed, but participated in a wrestling exhibition.  I think both of these men are very talented ... and brave! 

 Here is Warren Prescott, holding his entry in the arts and crafts display.  Warren was also one of our performers.  He whistled "I Am a Child of God" (very well!) to the delight of the audience, who sang the 3rd verse through with him.

 I'm sorry I didn't get my camera out sooner.  I emceed the program, which was just short of two hours long.  By the time I remembered to get the camera out, folks were already in the clean-up mode.

 Here is Bill Burns dishing up popcorn.  The old-fashioned popcorn maker filled the entire hall with the most delicious smell!  But then, I love popcorn!

 Here is Debbie Burns, our most excellent stage manager.  Debbie is McKenna's grandmother, so she had a stake in making the show a success.  (And boy, was it ever!)  Debbie helped set up our green room and made it comfortable and fun.  She monitored what was going on on-stage and helped get our acts ready to perform.  We should have paid her big bucks!  She would have been worth every penny. 

 Here are two of our graduating seniors: Marissa Rodriguez and Sheree Ibey.  I think all our Young Women are beautiful, and these girls are no exception.  Sheree also had a display of her make-up make-overs.  She's already a very talented make-up artist and hopes to pursue her current hobby as a future career.

 Jerry Ibey was our sound man and all around electrical genius.  Here he is showing off what is left of the proscenium.  They'd already removed much of the decorations.  It was a stroke of brilliance to use the chapel overflow area as the stage.  With helium balloons and the red vinyl curtains, it was very cheerfully functional.

Here is an example of the displays.  There were also tables filled with art work of all sorts, models and beautiful quilts were hanging along the back wall of the cultural hall.

We were entertained with vocal solos, a trumpet, guitar and piano solos, swing dancing and all kinds of other delightful talents.  The evening ended with the enchanting Mataele family performing dances from their native Tonga.  What a fun night! 

I love my ward family.  Everyone was still talking about it on Sunday morning.   Everyone thinks we should do it again next year - well, maybe with the exception of the Burns family and Mary Beth!