Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s Amnesty Concert returned after a four-year hiatus last Thursday.
Organized by PSO’s Amnesty Club the event, now dubbed PSO Has Talent, is a successor to the annual Amnesty Concert the club has run for decades. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the concert has been on hiatus but this year club president Liam Guimond said he and the other members wanted to bring it back.
“Every year typically the Amnesty Club puts on a big concert near the end of the year to raise funds for a humanitarian cause,” Guimond said. “The past couple of years we haven’t been able to put one on because of a small club size and not enough interest in a concert. We all figured (this year) we should put something on.”
Throughout the evening on May 23, a half dozen students including PSO’s Jazz Band entertained around 60 community members and high schoolers with live music. After the initial scheduled show ended the club opened the mic to everyone with a dozen more students coming forward to share their musical talents.
Standout performances included Claire Kreschuk, Joelle Kuyek and Tomas Grey’s performance of Never Enough, Emily Thain and her father Chris’ rendition of Jolene and a beatbox demonstration by Colby Ouellette. Several students also took the opportunity to do some karaoke together.
Andrew Grey, one of the club’s teacher sponsors, remarked he was blown away by how much support the club received. In the past, the concert has been student- driven giving the school a chance to show off their skills and talents, while raising money for a humanitarian cause.
“I’m really happy with how it went. We had limited time to organize and advertise the event and we wanted to make sure it felt full for the performers so they felt well supported and encouraged,” Grey said. “It was nice to see so many people come out and support the kids.”
READ MORE: 22nd annual Amnesty Concert launches in new format at PSO
Grey joked the only downside of the night was the fact people had to listen to him sing after his students pressured him into a rendition of I’m Just Ken from the Barbie movie.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done that and I had no plans of doing it tonight. That said I had a room of people chanting and who am I to turn them down?” Grey said.
Guimond agreed with Grey that the night was a success, noting it went much better than he expected. He was especially impressed by how many people ended up taking part in the open mic night.
“I’m very grateful for everyone who did participate, it made it such a great concert,” Guimond said.
This year 80 per cent of the money raised from the concert, from donations at the door and a bake sale, will be donated to UNICEF to support children in Gaza. Since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas last year, millions of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes and face starvation. Malnutrition is especially devastating for developing children, which is why the club wanted to support them directly.
“It seems like everyone has been really generous this evening, which we really appreciate,” Grey said, noting they raised $600.
Guimond added the remaining 20 per cent of the money will go towards funding future Amnesty Club events next year. While this is his last year at PSO, he noted he’s hopeful the club will grow next year and they’ll be able to run the concert again.
“Putting on a concert is so fun because you get to see the skills of a bunch of different people and just get to help spread the word about issues in the world to make people more conscious of what’s happening,” Guimond said. “To any high school students reading (this article) or future high school students, I highly encourage you to check out the club.”
Grey remarked at the end of the concert he is hopeful that in the years to come the concert will be able to return to what it was before the pandemic. In the past, he said the concert has used the entire gymnasium and he hopes to work back up to that.
“If we have students who want to come to share their music or any other talent they’ve been working on and would like to show off, we’d love to have them come out and do that so we can do a bigger and better thing next year,” Grey said.
