Alberton puts on hometown version of TV show

The contestants were much smaller and the judges did not have nearly as many rude things to say about them, but Alberton’s home-grown version of American Idol still got a standing ovation from a crowd of parents and family friends in the Albertonl lunchroom Thursday evening.

This is the second year for Alberton Idol, a competition open to anyone in the community with a talent that they want to share.

“Last year they just decided that they needed to do a little variety talent show. Some of the teachers just got together and put this on,” said Connie Dove, a cook at Alberton.

Dove emceed the event and gave each act its own special introduction.

“We didn’t have as many acts this year, but we did it a little later in the year,” said Kim Grebence, a fifth grade teacher at Alberton who helped organize the event.

This year there were 10 acts, a drop from last year’s 15, but still a great turnout, according to Grebence.

The evening’s acts included everything from a drum solo to singing to a father and son jazz saxophone duet. The event’s winners were chosen by the crowd, who wrote down their favorite act on a piece of paper that they placed in a coffee can.

Grebence said last year they gave each act its own personalized award but people were disappointed that there was no defined winner. This year each act got a participation award and the winning act got a trophy.

“It’s nice to see that these kids have talent,” Grebence said.

The winners of the event were Morgan Piippo and Becca Pluth, a third grade act that sung a song about avoiding conflict called “Keep Your Cool.” Piippo wore a black suit and tie and Pluth dressed in a white dress.

“We had asked Ms. Harmon, one of the second grade teachers, if she could help us pick out a song, and we listened to it and we found a bunch of things that we could do with it. I picked out the suit to wear. It was just a really great song,” Piippo said.

The two girls each performed in Alberton Idol last year, but as separate acts.

“We decided to go together this year, since we’re best friends,” Piippo said.

The duet started practicing their song-and-dance routine in January before the event was even announced. Grebence said they announced the event about one month prior to Thursday night’s performance.

“It was the greatest experience of my life,” Pluth said.

The duo said they plan on sharing the trophy and that it was important to them to be good sports about the competition. “We told all the other candidates that they did a great job, too,” Pluth said.

Grebence said all of the money raised by the event is given to the Parent Teacher Association for scholarship money. She said that each year there is a $100 scholarship given to a deserving student to help them pay for school supplies during their first year of college.

While this is only the second year of the competition, Grebence said she hopes one of the Alberton Idol competitors could one day be awarded the PTA scholarship.

“That’s what I think; you know it starts little like this,” Grebence said.

She added that the event is a great way for these kids to showcase their talents and it’s proof that just because Alberton is a small town does not mean that it does not have big talent.