American Idol at 2012 District Conference?
 |
While securing Crystal as a main entertainer for the 2011 District Conference is still only in the planning stage and a lot work has to take place to make it happen, not only will Crystal be able to entertain the Rotarians of District 6600 with her musical talents, the American Idol star also has a message to share about her persistence in overcoming diversities in her journey of life from signing in coffee houses in Chicago to pay her rent to now being an international icon.
Just as Crystal Bowersox has learned big dreams and hard work pays off, our District Governor for 2011-2012 Helyn Bolanis and her committee knows thinking big and hard work will result in a successful District Conference.
The 2012 District Conference Committee includes the following members:
1. Andy Stuart- Chair- Finance - Toledo
2. Barb Berebitsky-Toledo
3. Bill Pepple- District PR Chair- Bryan
4. Brad Rubini-Chair-Youth Activities -Toledo
5. Charles Mann-Member-Activities Committee-Toledo
6. Chet Welch-Chair- Printing-Springfield
7. Christina Dunn- Executive Director Toledo
8. Dan Moses-Chair- Still Photography-Toledo
9. Darline Clemens- Chair-Child Care- Defiance
10. David Hancock-Committee member-Entertainment-House of Friendship-Toledo
11. Deb Monagan –Chair PR Committee- Toledo
12. Dick Wolff- Entertainment Committee-Toledo
13. Eric Fankhauser-PE Toledo
14. Frank Viviano-Chair Decorations-Toledo
15. Gary McBride-First Vice chair-Toledo
16. Gary Murphy-Chair- Historic Data- Toledo
17. Gene Koby-Chair- Flag Ceremony- Sandusky
18. Greg Churilla-Member-PR Committee-Toledo
19. Helene Zielinski- Chief of Staff-Fremont
20. Hunt Sears-Chair-Hospitality Suite-Toledo
21. Jerry Peacock-Chair- District Projects for House of Friendship
22. Jim Euting-Perrysburg
23. Joe Napoli- Member-Activities Committee-Toledo
24. Joe Zerby-Chair- Installation Ceremony June 30, 2011-Toledo
25. John Fedderke -Member-PR Committee-Toledo
26. Judy Leb- Chair- Outside Activities-Toledo
27. Julie Oswald-Maumee
28. Kathy Carroll-Toledo
29. Kathy Gries-Chair- Vendors-House of Friendship-Toledo
30. Ken Robinson- Chair District Conference 2012-Perrysburg
31. Kirkland Mizerek-Co-Chair- Speakers- Toledo
32. Mark Goodremont-Chair-Club Booths-House of Friendship-Toledo
33. Mark Makulinski-Chair-Fellowship Booths- House of Friendship-Toledo
34. Mary Mancini-Chair-Grant Recipients- House of Friendship-Toledo
35. Mark V’Soske- Member Music/Entertainment - House of Friendship-Toledo
36. Pat Gory-Chair- Music/Entertainment House of Friendship-Oregon/Northwood
37. Paul Smith- Current Secretary Treasurer- Reynolds Corners
38. Phil Marisay-Chair-Video-Toledo
39. Phil Ziemke-Committee member-Sound system-Toledo
40. Ralph Becker-Reynolds Corners
41. Rob Stone-Member-Activities Committee-Toledo
42. Robbin Syrek- Future Treasurer- Maumee
43. Ron Pierson-Chair- Grazing Stations House of Friendship-Toledo
44. Sharon Skilliter- Chair House of Friendship-Toledo
45. Steve Miller-Co-Chair-Speakers/Entertainer-Toledo
46. Sue Martin-Chair- Paul Harris Fellows-Toledo
ELLISTON, Ohio — Long before adopting the dreadlocks, “American Idol” finalist Crystal Bowersox discovered what she needed to make sense of the world.
She calls it her comfort blanket — her guitar — and has been dragging it around ever since finding her mom’s six-string while snooping for Christmas presents when she was just 10-years-old.
There’s been one with her nearly every step, in Toledo’s smoky dive bars and Chicago’s subway stations, helping her navigate through plenty of hard times.
Her parents divorced when she was a toddler, leaving her bouncing among several homes. She was diagnosed with diabetes in the second grade and struggled to stay out of hospitals.
And after leaving home at age 17, she ended up in Chicago singing for rent money in coffee houses and blues clubs before coming back home pregnant and broke.
“To put her thoughts to music, that I’m sure was an escape,” said one of her mentors, Bobby May, who gave her the chance to sing between his sets in bars around Toledo when she was barely a teen.
Even at that young age, he said, Bowersox wasn’t intimidated by her surroundings. “Once you get into the music, you can block out any distractions,” May said.
“Idol” watchers have come to know her as a singer with a cool stage presence and raw vocals that evoke Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge — and as the 24-year-old mother of a toddler, Tony. But what they haven’t gotten to discover yet is her songwriting.
So far, producers of the singing competition have resisted her pleas to play one of her originals. She’s still hoping to sing one of her own songs in the finale Tuesday.
Bowersox has been a favorite all season on the Fox singing competition along with Lee DeWyze of Mount Prospect, Ill., another bluesy 24-year-old. This year’s “Idol” will be crowned Wednesday night.
Friends say Bowersox hoped trying out for the show would draw attention to her songwriting and that before “Idol” she had talked about moving to Nashville, Tenn., to become a songwriter.
“When America starts hearing her original music, that’s when the true artist is going to come out,” said Dave Gierke, one of her former music teachers at the Toledo School for the Arts.
He first heard her singing outside a farmer’s market when she was 15. It was a song about her dad, Bill Bowersox, now an electrician at a metal processing plant. “She sang this song that literally brought tears to my eyes,” Gierke said.
He encouraged her to enroll at the school where she suddenly found herself in a place where she could be a musician all day. “She’d play in my classroom and sing with as much conviction as she would in front of a hundred people,” he said.
Big crowds or fame were never the goal, said Frankie May, a childhood friend who became her bass player. The two had a regular Monday night gig that sometimes only drew a couple dozen people in suburban Toledo up until she left for “Idol.”
“We still played like we were playing to a full house,” he said.
About a dozen of her original songs already have been posted on YouTube.
Some are heart-wrenching, revealing a unique “old soul” quality that her teachers noticed early on when she was still a teenager.
“The songs she writes are real,” said Jamie Dauel, her high school choir teacher. “They’re either things she’s lived, things she’s seen, stories she’s heard. She puts that all together in a package that other people can relate to.”
Bowersox has been writing originals longer than she’s been playing guitar.
She grew up in Elliston, a village of no more than 100 people that didn’t have a sign welcoming visitors until a few months ago when church members put up a sign honoring the hometown star.
It was here where she had time to reflect on life and put it into songs.
Neighbors remember hearing her sing late at night in a garage next to the house.
Her elementary school music teacher, Vicki Sievert, remembers that she came to her in the third or fourth grade with a song she had written.
“It was a real song. It had form, it had melody, it had harmony,” she said. “I was so impressed. I knew then there was a lot of talent.” At first, she started out singing karaoke in bars with her mother. At county fairs, festivals and talent shows, she’d sing with a guitar almost as big as she was, sometimes winning money to buy clothes.
By age 14, she was on stage by herself, playing mostly original music.
There was never any question that her future was in music.
Classmates in junior high chanted her name when she sang and voted her most likely to be famous. She left her teachers in awe when she sang a Jewel song — her favorite singer back then — at a school talent show.
“She was in control of the world when she was on the stage with her guitar,” said Les Wyse, a former history teacher. “She owned the stage and could do anything she wanted.”
