{"id":15299,"date":"2016-09-21T21:37:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T01:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15299"},"modified":"2016-11-10T12:45:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T17:45:18","slug":"brandt-doyle-and-newcomer-shepherd-blow-roof-off-hoedown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brandt-doyle-and-newcomer-shepherd-blow-roof-off-hoedown\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandt, Doyle and newcomer Sheppard blow roof off Hoedown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Country star Paul Brandt, Great Big Sea\u2019s Alan Doyle, and Hoedown Showdown winner Mac Sheppard pooled their talents last week to blow the roof off York Region\u2019s biggest party.
\nMagna\u2019s annual Wild, Wild West Hoedown kicked off Friday under the big top of the Magna Corral for two days of great music, great food, and supporting great causes.
\nOnce the numbers were crunched from event ticket sales, raffle ticket sales, and more, by the time Magna founder Frank Stronach brought out the cheque alongside CEO Don Walker, Aurora Councillor John Abel and Mayors Steve Pellegrini of King, Tony Van Bynen of Newmarket and Virginia Hackson of East Gwillimbury, $479,000 was set to be shared equally between 15 community organizations.
\nThis was up over $15,000 from last year\u2019s fundraising efforts.
\nFor the second year running, Hoedown kicked off with a lunchtime Hoedown tailored for York Region\u2019s Special Needs students. Over 1,000 youth turned out with their teachers and caregivers to take in performances from Beverley Mahood, Leah Daniels, and more, all the while having a chance to contribute to the cause as well.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re helping others help others,\u201d York Region District School Board teacher Derek Bunn, founder of the special needs Hoedown, told the crowds. Thank you for being a very important part of that chain of helping the community. This is an atmosphere of friendship, it is an atmosphere of giving back and caring for others.\u201d
\nThis sentiment was shared by Magna\u2019s Steve Hinder who said they had no hesitation jumping at the opportunity to host such a special event two years ago.
\nFriday also signalled the end of this year\u2019s Hoedown Showdown competition where the Top 10 from all over Ontario had the chance to perform before thousands of country fans \u2013 and the all-important judges, including Ms. Mahood, Mr. Hinder and philanthropist Joan Walker.
\nThis year\u2019s winner is 15-year-old Keswick resident Shepherd, who opened for Paul Brant as he took the stage for Saturday\u2019s grand finale.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nCountry star Paul Brandt, Great Big Sea\u2019s Alan Doyle, and Hoedown Showdown winner Mac Sheppard pooled their talents last week to blow the roof off York Region\u2019s biggest party. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-22-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3YL","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 13:49:51","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\/15299","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=15299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}