Awards will honour your local Legends & Heroes

June 19, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Community icons and heroes will be honoured July 26 with a special awards dinner at Town Park.

The event, which will be hosted by broadcaster Christine Bentley and feature live entertainment and local food, will give Aurorans a chance to “toast Aurora’s own.”

Nominations are now open for residents to nominate local community members for “outstanding contributions to, and achievements in, various capacities of community involvement,” according to Habachat, organizers of the Icons & Heroes Awards.

“Achievements could range from teaching excellence and creativity to local developments in civic improvements to a youth ambassador philanthropist or sports team mentor or athlete, for example. Voting will be done online by Aurora residents to select the most notable Aurora Icons and Heroes in various categories of community contribution.”

If you know someone who fits the bill, nominations are being accepted, along with a descriptions of their achievements and accomplishments at www.habachat.com/nominations until June 26. Categories will be created “based on submissions with a minimum of three nominations per category’ and once the nominees have been tallied, the public will be able to vote for their winners online.

Tickets will be available online for purchase at www.habachat.com/iconsandheroes for this dinner, billed as a joint production between Habachat and Farley Flex’s R.E.A.L. Corp.

Following the evening of Icons & Heroes on the Friday, Town Park will be transformed into a musical mecca on Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28 for the inaugural Celebrate Aurora! music festival, featuring a wide array of local talent and some talent from farther afield.

Also organized by R.E.A.L. Corp and Habachat, Mr. Flex has assembled talent for Celebrate Aurora! with the assistance of Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo, who participated in this month’s Aurora Street Festival, holding live auditions on the street near Cousins Drive tapping into what just might be undiscovered local talent.

With nearly 40 auditions taken in, Mr. Melo said he was impressed by what he saw and heard.

“I did find a lot of interesting singers,” said Mr. Melo as the Festival wrapped up on June 2. “I didn’t know what to expect coming in, but there were definitely a couple that impressed me. I think we had about 35 singers today, I didn’t know what to expect, but we weren’t expecting that! There were probably a good four or five that really blew me away and any expectations I had.

“Aurora definitely has talent! A lot of great musicians are coming together and it is going to be a good wealth of talent once everybody gets here. I think it is going to be great.”