By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
A young local singer, Amanda Alexander, will be joining the line-up of Saskatchewan and national talent who will perform for the 23rd annual Kinsmen Telemiracle fund-raising broadcast this weekend, March 6 and 7.
The telethon, broadcast province-wide from Saskatoon's Centennial Auditorium, will be hosted nationally by CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson, and will include an extensive list of performers including Valdy, Tom Jackson, Connie Kaldor, Lawrence Gowan, Charlie Major, the Barra MacNeils and Rita MacNeil.
Auditions for the Saskatchewan portion of the entertainment were held in January, and Weyburn's Amanda Alexander took her turn on Jan. 27 in Regina.
The song she auditioned was, My Wild Frontier, by Faith Hill, and will also be the song she will be performing at Telemiracle. She will be accompanying herself on the piano.
Amanda admitted she was surprised she was called by the organizers and told she was accepted onto the list of performers.
"I was surprised I got the call, because the song was sad," she said.
A graduate of the Weyburn Comprehensive School in 1997, Amanda has been singing since she was a little girl, and has aspirations to continue on with singing for as long as she can. The 19-year-old is currently working in Weyburn, and is taking courses by correspondence from the University of Saskatchewan in horticulture.
Amanda is scheduled to sing on Sunday morning, March 7, between 7 and 8 a.m., for what will be the largest audience to ever hear her sing.
"I've sang at grad and at Communithon, but I've never sang at anything this big before," she said, adding while she is nervous about the solo performance, she is hopeful this wider exposure to her talent will help her advance further.
Weyburn's Kinsmen and Kinettes Clubs will also be a part of the Telemiracle broadcast, working backstage. The club held its annual Telemiracle pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, at the Co-op cafeteria, attended by around 190 people. The club will be donating a total of $570 to Telemiracle as a result of this fund-raiser.
Jeff Plamondon, the Telemiracle coordinator for the Weyburn Kinsmen, said all 22 members of the Kinsmen and Kinettes will be making the trip to Saskatoon to work at the fund-raiser.
"We're the liaison between the front and where the performers like Amanda will stay. When they're ready for the performers on-stage, we'll escort them out onto stage," he said. The 20-hour marathon is broken into four shifts for the volunteers, with the coordinators set to work the entire telethon non-stop.
"You really don't get tired, because you're busy and making sure the performers are comfortable," said Plamondon.
In addition, four dogsled teams stopped through Weyburn overnight on Friday, with some of the dogs making an appearance at the breakfast on Saturday before pushing on up Highway 39 towards Regina, and eventually to Saskatoon by the end of this week.
Other Saskatchewan performers will be coming from every corner of the province for the broadcast, which will start at 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, and continue straight through until 5 p.m. on Sunday.
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