Quesnel’s Ambassador Leadership Program will have a new look again this year, this time because of COVID-19.

The program has undergone a major shift over the past two years, switching from Miss Quesnel to an Ambassador program where boys are also welcome, and now they will hold a virtual showcase and awards show.

Rose Scott, the Workshop Coordinator, says the showcase coming up on Friday night will take place at the Chuck Mobley Theatre at Correlieu Secondary but only 35 people can attend.

Scott says they will be live streaming it for everyone else who would like to watch…

“So anybody that wants to watch will have to go onto our Quesnel Ambassador Leadership Program Facebook page, and we will be doing a live stream on that site and it starts at 7 o’clock.”

Scott says they have even had to make a lot of adjustments prior to the big events coming up this weekend…

“We’ve had so many things that we’ve needed to modify and adapt because of COVID.   The last 15 meetings that we’ve done with the candidates has been on ZOOM so we’ve been able to talk to them and they’ve been able to present their speeches and we’ve been able to do different workshops in regards to some of the things we’ve worked on like conflict resolution and self esteem and confidence and etiquette, proper social etiquette and proper eating etiquette, all those things done on ZOOM.”

Scott says the showcase event will be up first on Friday night…

“July 3rd is what we’re calling our showcase night and that night all eight candidates will be doing one speech that they’ve chosen, we’ve actually prepared six different speeches, but they will be choosing one of those as their showcase speech, and then they will be presenting.   We don’t like to call it a talent anymore, nowadays we tend to just call it a passion or an interest, so they’ll be presenting something that they’re proud of and we have a huge variety this year.”

Scott says they will also be answering an impromptu question and then the following night, on Saturday night, is their awards night…

“That is the night that we will be presenting awards to all of the candidates in recognition of the work that they’ve done throughout the past 6 months, and then we will also be saying goodbye to our current ambassadors, and then finding out who our three new ambassadors for Quesnel will be.”

The outgoing ambassadors are Hailey Murray, Nalyssa Runge and Sydney Williams.

Scott says there are no boys entered again this year, something she hopes will eventually change…

“Other communities in BC have had male ambassadors for years, but it’s hard to find those first people to break that barrier.   And we’re working really hard to try and find one or two brave boys that are willing to become our first ambassadors as males.”

Scott says they had two interested this year but once one bowed the other one did as well.