Scene 8: The Final Presentation and Concert

Cast of Characters: Ronell, Shelia, MGV Team, Scott, Bob, Guests

Backstory:

After 7 weeks of hard work, we were ready for our final presentation. In talking with our advisors and sponsors, we decided to hold a concert with the Green Light Project as part of our presentation. We saw this as a good way to introduce our music programme we had helped to establish to the community. With two weeks of preparation, the concert was planned to take place on Thursday December 14.

 

Key “Take Home” Observations:

  • There was a great turn out at the concert.
  • A majority of the guests were kids who could potentially join the MGV music programme.
  • The concert was a great way to end our work in MGV.

Actions and Observations:

The concert was planned to begin at 6:00 on Thursday night. We didn’t know what to expect for a turn out of people when we got in the cab and left for MGV. Arriving, we walked in to find the entire community centre filled with guests, a majority of whom were excited children. Everyone was loud and very excited to be there. After a few technical difficulties, we were able to get the music ready and begin the programme.

The night began with a brief welcome and quick overview of our project work. Since the audience was mainly children, we drastically shortened and modified this part to keep the attention of our audience. Ronell then took the lead and introduced each act The concert opened up with the extreme dancers which consisted of the older children of the village. The younger children followed them with some dancing and singing of their own. By the end of the concert everyone was up singing and dancing together. Refreshments were served as the concert came to a close.

Everyone, the students, advisors, sponsors, and guests, had a huge smile on their faces throughout the entire concert. The children were all very talented and excited to show off their moves. The concert was a great success and perfect way to end our work in Maitland Garden Village.

 

Reflection and Learning: 

 

The youth music and dance concert was a wonderful success and left both our group and the MGV audience in high spirits. Looking back on the youth programme, we realise that it was important in that it generated enthusiasm from both the city staff at the Community Center and the MGV youth, it served as a model for how the GLP could develop its programmes by leveraging municipal resources (staffing, venue), and strengthened the GLP link to the city and its ongoing municipal funded initiatives targeted at after school programming. Due to the positive reaction of the very big audience at the concert, of which the large majority were children, we anticipate that participation and support of the programme will continue to grow after we leave MGV. Although we were successful in starting up a programme the MGV youth positively responded to, we realise that if we had more time in MGV we could have further developed the project in several ways. For instance, we might have been able to create a small group of committed community leaders, or even collaborate with the city workers at the Community Centre to help municipal staff develop the initiative. Also, we could have spent more time publicising and getting more support for the programme by contacting local schoolteachers and other MGV organisations such as the Residents Association. To advance the programme in the future, we hope that the GLP leaders will take it upon themselves to collaborate with the city staff as well as other community groups and potential programme leaders so that it can gain support, be run efficiently, and remain sustainable. Overall, we had the experience of a lifetime working with the great people of Maitland Garden Village and believe that together we made a difference in the community by contributing to the strong foundation of the Green Light Project. We will miss Ronell, Sheila, the children, and the rest of the MGV community and look forward to keeping in touch with the Green Light Project and learning about their future advancements.

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