{"id":24740,"date":"2019-09-20T17:41:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24740"},"modified":"2019-09-27T15:35:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:35:53","slug":"over-half-a-million-reasons-to-hoedown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/over-half-a-million-reasons-to-hoedown\/","title":{"rendered":"Over half a million reasons to Hoedown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Aurora was a mecca for country music fans on Friday and\nSaturday for the thirty-first Magna Hoedown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featuring music from headliners Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea and James Barker Band, York Region\u2019s biggest annual party raised nearly $518,000, which will be shared between 20 community organizations and partnerships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating in \u2013 and benefiting from \u2013 this year\u2019s\nfestivities are Abuse Hurts, Aurora FC, the Aurora Tigers, Autism Ontario &\nKerry\u2019s Place Autism Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters of York & Epilepsy\nYork Region, Community Living Central York, DeafBlind Ontario Services, Easter\nSeals, Hospice Georgina and Georgina Arts, the Lake Simcoe Soccer Club,\nLearning Disabilities Association of York Region, Literacy Council York-Simcoe\n& Learning Centre for Georgina, Marquee Theatrical Productions, Newmarket\nRedmen, Pulsars Gymnastics, St. John Ambulance, the Food Bank of York Region,\nVictim Services of York Region, the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region and the York\nPride Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the big top opened for the general public on\nFriday night, the tent played host to a milestone: the fifth anniversary of the\nStudent Hoedown, an event organized by York Region teachers that is tailor-made\nfor local students with disabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFive years of Student Hoedown \u2013 congratulations!\u201d said\nco-founder Derek Bunn, before a sea of students, caregivers, and volunteers on\nthe dance floor. \u201cHelping people in the community, coming with donations that\nhelp organizations like Abuse Hurts, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Community\nLiving and a whole host of others is just amazing. This is what the spirit of\nHoedown is all about: community partnerships and giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating students had the chance to get a sneak\npreview of the evening\u2019s entertainment courtesy of the Top 10 contestants in\nthe Hoedown Showdown, the Ontario-wide talent search for Canada\u2019s next country\nstar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event had special resonance for finalist Dayna Reid\nof Elmvale, who said the love of music shared by her brother, who lives with\nautism, inspires her every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After warming up in front of the students in morning, the\nTop Ten were primed and ready to take the stage Friday night, opening for Alan\nDoyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singing two songs each, third place ($1,000) went to Evan\nFarrell of Stouffville, followed in second place ($1,500) by Sarah Campbell\nMills of Burlington, and, winning the grand prize pack worth over $25,000,\nincluding a professional recording session \u2013 Dayna Reid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore I went up on stage, I was pretty nervous, but I\nthought in my head, \u2018Let\u2019s just do this and get it done,\u2019\u201d she told The Auroran\nafter her win. \u201cWhen you see the crowd and their energy, it gives you so much\nmotivation to keep going and have fun with it. That was the most fun I have\never had on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last little while, Ms. Reid says she has pushed\neverything aside to really focus on music and make it a career. Following her\nyear as the Hoedown Showdown winner, she hopes to be performing \u201cfull-time and\nfull-on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to do anything else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, immediately following her win, there was one other\nthing at the top of her to-do list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy brother\u2019s love of music really drove me to try and do\ngood in this competition,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want him to be proud, to be\nhonest. He couldn\u2019t be here tonight, but I am excited to go home to him and\ngive him a big hug!\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magna Hoedown raises nearly $518,000 for local charities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24731,"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-24740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-19-20.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6r2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 10:27:19","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\/24740","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=24740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}