Page 47 - 2018 July Newsletter

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n BY NICK SWEDBERG
As they do every Monday, officers from the 15th District CAPS office were at the Brunson Math & Science Specialty School when they got a bright idea. The visits are part of the district’s sports mentoring program. A few of the student participants, excited to see their local officers, invited them to a big event coming up at the school.
“They were like, ‘Hey officers, you should come to our talent show,’” said 15th District Officer Zach Ramirez. This school talent show would become the inspiration for officers to host a similar event for all of the schools across the Austin district, said Ramirez, who has five years on the job.
On June 2, “Austin’s Got Talent” brought together some of the area’s most talented students to compete for prizes. A host of ce- lebrity judges and entertainers from Chicago were on hand as stu- dents from grades pre-K-12 sang, danced and played their hearts out, said Officer Zach Ramirez, who helped organize the event with Officer William Martinez.
The event had the secondary purpose of encouraging students to keep going back to class, Martinez said.
“You had to be enrolled and currently attending school,” Marti- nez said of the student entertainers. To find potential participants, officers visited each school in the district and promoted the con- test with fliers. All were welcome to submit a video, which then was posted on the Brunson School website. Ramirez said they received about 25 video submissions.
“It was our first attempt at this. Next year, if we decide to do it, we’ll have to figure out a better way to see the videos,” Ramirez said. From those videos, 10 of the best performers were chosen to partic-
ipate at Brunson in front of a crowd of about 200 people.
“It was a great success. We had our 15th District Explorers helping out with the concessions stand,” Ramirez said.
Walter Verdun, 15, a student at Brunson, finished in first place. According to organizers, Verdun’s impressive moves on the dance floor were what inspired the contest in the first place.
“You never would have thought this young kid could dance like that,” Martinez said. d
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2018 47