VDPAC Society Announces Bursary Winners for 2019

At the Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre Society’s 18th Annual Birthday Bash celebration on September 28th, Society President Sigrid-Ann Thors announced the three Bursary winners for 2019 to an audience of 500 patrons, sponsors and special guests prior to the Society’s rousing official SPOTLIGHT Season’s opening concert performance by Michael Kaeshammer.

The three recipients of this year’s $1,000 bursaries are Shaughnessy O’Brien, Sierra Shaw and Kayleigh Wagner, all of Vernon, BC. Families of this year’s recipients were invited to Saturday night’s performance to be recognized by the audience with the announcement.

Each year the Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre Society makes available bursaries to Vernon and area Grade 12 students entering, or currently enrolled in a post-secondary Performing Arts or Performing Arts Management program, or a recognized apprenticeship program in the Performing Arts.

Bursaries are made possible from the generous donations by Performing Arts Centre patrons, tips collected at the coat check and the bar & concession, as well as specified, tax deductible donations and memorial gifts by individual donors and sponsors throughout the year. The number and amount of the Society’s bursaries depends on the quality and need expressed in applications and the funds collected. The Board of Directors’ Bursary Program Committee has set bursaries at $1,000 each due to the high cost of post-secondary programs. Under the Bursary Program’s guidelines, students are eligible to receive a maximum of two Performing Arts Centre Society bursaries over their post-secondary career.

“We are very grateful to the patrons, donors and sponsors of the Performing Arts Centre who help make our bursaries possible,” says Jim Harding, executive director. “We have a very accomplished community of theatre, dance, music school programs and academies here, which speaks to how important the performing arts are to our students. We want to encourage them with our Bursary Program to help explore and develop careers. This year, we received so many worthy applications with real financial need and we are happy to help this year’s students, but wish we could do more. We will certainly need the coming year and the continued generosity of our supporters to help re-build our Bursary Fund resources for 2020.”

Guidelines for the Bursary Program are available on the Society’s website at vdpac.ca and application details will be announced in the Spring of 2020.

For more information or to donate to the Bursary Program, please contact the Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre (250-542-9355) or by email at: [email protected]

About the 2019 Recipients

Shaughnessy O’Brien, a graduate of W.L. Seaton Secondary, is in her second year in Bachelor of Fine Arts - Acting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB and her first of three years in a 14-member acting conservatory. Upon graduating, her class will embark on an audition tour across Canada. Her goal is to pursue live theatre, as well as acting in film and television.

Sierra Shaw, also a graduate from W.L. Seaton Secondary, is a first year student at Concordia University in Montreal, QC, in the Faculty of Fine Arts with specialization in Design for Theatre and a Minor in Human Rights. Her passion for theatre is in set design, lighting, sound and stage management and chose Concordia for being internationally known for its theatre design program.

Kayleigh Wagner is a graduate of Vernon Secondary School and a student in her second year of a two-year diploma program in Costuming for Stage and Screen at Capilano University in North Vancouver, BC, after completing her first year in the Bachelor of Arts program at UBCO-Okanagan. Her career goal is to become a costumer in the theatre industry and will receive first-hand experience in costume construction and as running crew on Capilano stage productions.