KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
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Kayla Desroches/KMXT
St. Mary’s School is putting together a venue for Kodiak residents to share their musical prowess, their tall tales, and their dance moves.
The talent show will follow the example other communities in Alaska have set. Specifically, Sitka’s Monthly Grind. Jeff Budd from Sitka flew into Kodiak this week to speak with organizers.
Budd says the Monthly Grind started out with a lot of musical performances. And while music still plays a big part, the acts branched out.
“In my interpretation, it’s a coffee house and kind of a review, and you have six to eight minutes to do what you want to do and, that way, if people in the audience don’t like kids jumping rope, just wait. It’ll be over and then somebody will be doing ballet or heavy metal or poetry or blue grass music or whatever the thing is.”
St. Mary’s co-principal Brian Cleary says they want to learn from Sitka’s example in order to make a strong start.
The school will use funds it recently won from the Kodiak Community Foundation. This year the Foundation distributed the $25,000 donation it received from Skoda, a Czech company that filmed two car commercials in Kodiak.
St. Mary’s received the largest amount of all the nonprofits from this last cycle: $4,500. Cleary says part of that money will go to redoing its stage setup in the school gym.
“Just the ability to have a portable stage that a couple of people can pull out and it’s not going to be a huge event is gonna be very useful to what we do with our students.”
He says other parts of the community use the stage too. He says the Boy Scouts hold ceremonies there and he’s seen members of the Filipino community hold events there too.
“And I think that’s what the foundation was real interested in – is like, well it’s not just for the students, but it’s really for the community and really kind of fits in with what Jeff and them are doing there in Sitka.”
Cleary says they’re planning three winter shows: one in November, another in January, and the final one in March.
