Assiniboia hosts social media talent contest to cut the coronavirus blues

It may not be quite the same as America’s Got Talent, but Steph VanDeSype was hoping to see just as many wacky and impressive talents during the Town of Assiniboia’s social media contest Assiniboia Has Talent. As the recreation and community wellness manager in Assiniboia, VanDeSype wanted to debut a fun community activity to boost people’s spirits while stuck at home and social distancing. “Right now my department’s not fun because all the fun stuff’s cancelled. And so I’ve been dreaming of something that’s fun and can make people laugh,” said VanDeSype. Assiniboia Has Talent began on March 30, welcoming anyone with an interesting talent to share their photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram to participate. VanDeSype started the project hoping to see the full spectrum of fun talents, and that means everything from the expected like singing and dancing to the unexpected, like cool tricks, trampoline flips, or lip-synching performances.

“It doesn’t have to be singing or dancing or musical instruments. I want to see their dogs do fancy tricks or kids showing off stick-handling skills, or if somebody has a recipe they’ve perfected to post pictures of the finished product and share the recipe, said VanDeSype. “Anything that somebody is good at and proud of, I want to see it.”

The online talent contest ran will run until April 10, and contestants were entered into a random draw at the end of each day for a gift card to a local Assiniboia business — which will be mailed out to winners, to comply with social distancing.

VanDeSype has been keeping the Town of Assiniboia’s Recreation & Community Wellness Facebook page updated with her own daily joke videos, and the online talent contest was her way of seeing some new faces to help entertain the community.

“The whole point is to make people laugh, and show each other and get people talking about something other than what is going on in the world right now, even if it’s just a distraction for two minutes,” said VanDeSype. Entries started coming in almost immediately, featuring exactly what VanDeSype was hoping for: jokes, cool tricks like hula hooping and trampoline flips, musical performances, and more.

All of the entries can be found on the Assiniboia Has Talent Facebook group, or posted on Instagram using the hashtag #AssiniboiaHasTalent.