{"id":15261,"date":"2016-09-14T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T20:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15261"},"modified":"2016-09-14T16:25:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T20:25:09","slug":"hoedown-to-get-wilder-for-york-regions-special-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hoedown-to-get-wilder-for-york-regions-special-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoedown to get \u201cwilder\u201d for York Region\u2019s special students"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBigger and wilder\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s what York Region teacher Derek Bunn is promising as he and Magna prepare to welcome nearly 1,000 of York Region\u2019s special needs students to Aurora this Friday for a Hoedown of their own.<\/p>\n

York Region\u2019s biggest two-day party is set to get underway this Friday night with Great Big Sea\u2019s Alan Doyle and the finals in the popular Hoedown Showdown but, for the second year running, the bash will begin a bit earlier with a Hoedown tailor-made for kids facing challenges.<\/p>\n

The brainchild of Mr. Bunn and Magna, last year\u2019s Special Hoedown was wildly successful, attracting 700 students, and it has only been building momentum.<\/p>\n

The event not only allows the students to get a preview of the evening\u2019s entertainment and dance the afternoon away with special accommodations made for those students with sensory issues, but it also gives them a chance to give back to the community by donating to the Hoedown community partners of their choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a large collection of special needs students within York Region all giving to charities and I found that amazing,\u201d says Mr. Bunn, looking back on last year. \u201cStudents were able to contribute to 15 different charities and I found that such a wonderful thing and the energy level was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd no one was drunk!\u201d he adds with a laugh. \u201cThe energy was just so positive and I think the organizers of the Hoedown themselves were just as excited to see such a wonderful energy at Hoedown.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the big day rapidly approaches for the students, that excitement level is mounting. Last year, the kids and teens were particularly stoked to get up on stage and say a few words to the crowds, take the crown as Best Dressed Cowboy or Cowgirl \u2013 and this year? Well, that\u2019s where the \u201cbigger and wilder\u201d comes in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis past spring, I sent out emails to all the schools that are coming with information and at our last track and field meet for the secondary schools I had tables set up there and our students in our special needs classes at Sutton High made the banner just to get people thinking about it, and every teacher I have heard back from is saying they\u2019re excited, they\u2019re pumped and can\u2019t wait,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just went so smoothly last year and I think that was the surprise of it all: the people from Neighbourhood Network, the Hoedown organizers, were just so conscientious of our needs, the sounds, the lights, adjusting the volume and not having the strobe lights on kids who have medical conditions. I can\u2019t think of anything we would have done differently and I think that is part of the excitement that last year was such a great success the first time running it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some parents, it was giving [their kids] a safe place to have a concert and they knew they were going to be well taken care of and their needs would be met. We are excited, the students are excited, we like participating in our community, and we are happy to give back to the community and I can\u2019t think of anything better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on Magna\u2019s annual Wild, Wild West Hoedown, which takes place this Friday with headliner Alan Doyle and on Saturday with headliner Paul Brandt, visit www.hoedown.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBigger and wilder\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s what York Region teacher Derek Bunn is promising as he and Magna prepare to welcome nearly 1,000 of York Region\u2019s special needs students to Aurora this Friday for a Hoedown of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Y9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 14:36:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}