Not a fan of this "award" it has nothing to do with who the audience thought was best. It basically is what groups parents stuffed the most money in a bucket.
We actually do have the People's Choice caption attached to Logan The Class Act; however, the "this is a non-competitive division" just supersedes that and covers it up. Häakon knows about that effect and it's just a tough thing to balance separated divisions with overall captions... it's on the list. I do agree with folks critiques of the award itself -- but it's hardly the only one of its kind out there. I know Altoona does an award for who drinks the most smoothies, and there was an Iowa competition a week or two ago that did Best Use of Band... not Best Band, but Best Use (?) of Band. What I'm trying to say is, we'll happily post whatever creative or seemingly unimportant captions competitions decide to award, but I think the show choir community has kind of accepted that BV BC and BB are the main ones.
edit: update with regard to Logan -- I ended up adjusting the divisions to consolidate "4A" and "3A" into one overall mixed division so that the caption appears. We aren't always able to do this, but this change doesn't really affect the results/competition event page in any large way. Hope that helps!
I would like to note that Great River ALWAYS donates ALL of the money to charity, and never keeps a dime. The past several years it has gone to the HAVlife foundation, which has donated over $1 million to students in the arts who may not be able to afford the fees and costs of being in things like show choir. One year it went to the Red Cross to assist with flood relief. So while it may be "purely a fundraiser" at some competitions, and it is indeed "what group's parents shoved the most money in a bucket", at Great River it is also a philanthropic effort. If either of the negative posters had actually been in attendance at the event, they would have heard this announcement, and hopefully applauded it, rather than diminishing it. Great River donated almost $500 this year, and since they began the award has donated over $14,000 to HAVlife.
Perhaps we could all be a little more positive in the future? And perhaps the adults on this site could learn something from the positivity and support of the students on this site.
I’m confused by the proposition that, because you’re donating it to another organization, that makes it not “purely a fundraiser” like other competitions. Isn’t that still a fundraiser?
Also, don’t most competitions keep 100% of the money they raised to support their program, help students who might not be able to afford fees, etc. I think it’s odd you want to make Great River out to be somehow different and better than all the other music programs who use competitions as a way to partially fund their programs. Companies like Fame aside, there are no for-profit competitions. All competitions are essentially philanthropic efforts.
The point of the post was to inform the casual observer that "Peoples Choice" has nothing to do with the winning groups performance. The buckets are there first thing in the morning collecting money before any group has performed. A more accurate name for the award would be "most generous school" or something similar.
Nothing wrong with raising money as we all know how much all of these schools have to pay for things such as costumes, music, and choreography.
Iowa does their divisions by school size. They call it 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. On SCC, we obviously use tiers. Logan was considered 3A, or Tier II, at this competition. Generally, schools can elect to bump up their division (if they wish). At any rate even with the divisions, typically all choirs are eligible for finals (so, I mean, what's the point of the 4A-1A in the first place? Off topic). So in summary, no Logan "The Class Act" was not considered prep here. 4A-1A is all varsity, just split up by school size. Hope that helps!
What I'm trying to say is, we'll happily post whatever creative or seemingly unimportant captions competitions decide to award, but I think the show choir community has kind of accepted that BV BC and BB are the main ones.
