August 10, 2021
By: Shan Stout
The City of Smithville, along with the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree & Crafts Festival received a heart-warming message, and photo, from seven of the Virtual Inclusive Jamboree contestants that participated in this year’s festival via online video submissions.
“After last year’s virtual competition, we were so very glad to get back to a LIVE event,” said Shan Stout. Director of Marketing for the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree, “We decided, however, that although we were able to have it in person for 2021, that there still may be those in our vulnerable population that were unable to attend due to travel barriers, so we agreed to host a Virtual Inclusive Jamboree for special needs teens and adults. We were thrilled with the response of video submissions, and it melted our hearts when a group of competitors from California sent a photo of their dance troupe holding their awards that were received by mail. They have inspired us in so many ways, but most of all in making us aware of the need for more handicap accessibility for our festival. This year, we built a brand new ADA compliant handicap ramp, guard rails, along with our new stage being constructed of the most stable materials. Moving forward, we are looking for more ways to make the Jamboree accessible to anyone that wants to come.”
“I would just like to thank Smithville, and the Jamboree, for doing this,” said Dance Coach Brian Bon of the Bon Family California All Star Cloggers, “We really don’t have anything like this to do in California. There are no clogging competitions here, and all of the events are very small, so our dancers really appreciate this virtual opportunity so very much.”
Among those shown in the photograph are Zachary Hughes and Sarah Jensen, the adult and teen Virtual Inclusive Bluegrass Dance Award Winners. Zachary and Sarah’s competition videos can be seen on the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree FaceBook page, along with the other video dance submissions for 2021. They were awarded certificates and a cash prize for their accomplishments. According to their coach, the group is hoping to raise funds to travel to the Jamboree to compete on stage in 2022.