VIDEO STORY: Maricopa’s Got Talent raises $9,000 for Against Abuse

Singers, dancers and musicians at the Maricopa’s Got Talent concert Saturday proved the show’s namesake true.

Maricopa does in fact have talent – and lots of it.

Eighteen performers – both young and old – wowed the crowd inside Maricopa High School’s Performing Arts Center. By the end of the show, Maricopa residents were on their feet cheering.

The event, organized by father and daughter Jim and Aubrey Chaston, has raised around $9,000 so far for Maricopa’s Domestic Abuse Shelter and Against Abuse, an organization based in Casa Grande that helps victims of domestic abuse.

“I am just extremely humbled that you are all here tonight to make my dream come true,” Torri Anderson told the audience during the beginning of the show. Anderson is on the Against Abuse board of directors.

In addition to raising money for Against Abuse, the show was designed to highlight the arts within Maricopa, Jim Chaston said.

“There’s a lot of great arts going on in Maricopa,” he told the audience.

With that, he welcomed everyone to Maricopa’s Got Talent. The crowd applauded, the lights dimmed, and a short video began playing on two big screens to the right and left of the stage.

The video introduced McKenna Hubbard, the show’s first performer. In the video, she sat next to her mom and her dad as they talked about her love for music.

“She sings all the time,” her mom said.

“ALL the time,” her dad emphasized.

After the video ended, the spotlight onstage revealed Hubbard, wearing a plaid shirt, white blazer and blue jeans, and holding a cardboard sign that read, “Have you seen him?” with a picture of a young man.

Hubbard did a choreographed number to “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” originally sung by The Script.

“Going back to the corner where I first saw you, Gonna camp in my sleeping bag, I’m not gonna move. Got some words on cardboard, got your picture in my hand, saying ‘If you see this boy can you tell him where I am?’” Hubbard sang.

Other highlights from the first half of the show included Joy Pizorno singing “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story” and Taryn Story and Saasil Caballero singing “Royals” by Lorde.

During the intermission, Robert Pizorno said he was really enjoying the show – but he was a bit biased, he said, because his daughter Joy was performing.

“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s fun to see her on the stage. And that she’s so comfortable up there makes me a proud dad.”

Pizorno said his daughter has been performing since sixth grade. He’s seen her grown from someone who was shy and introverted to someone who is very confident on the stage. Now, Joy hopes she’ll be able to attend The Julliard School after graduating from high school.

During the second half of the show, the performers continued to impress the audience. Other highlights included Alfred Abraham performed “In the Mirror” on the piano, May McCarthey singing “Concrete Angel,” a song about abuse, and Kevin Snow performed a song he wrote called “Over a Minor Hill.”

The audience began murmuring in awe after 12-year-old Jiselle Diaz performed “I (Who Have Nothing)” performed, and after Joey Vitagliano sang and performed “Danko/Manuel” on the guitar.