Cameron Jones Ohio Has Talent! winner

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Community Health Professionals’ Ohio Has Talent! competition apparently saved the best for last, as Delphos resident Cameron Jones, the last person to perform, won this year’s fundraising talent event, held at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.

Jones, a freshman at Delphos Jefferson High School, wowed the crowd with his singing and virtuoso guitar playing to earn the top spot in the event. Earlier, Jones, who earned $500 for the first-place finish, and Kate Fox, a 12-year-old from New Knoxville who sang a duet with St. Marys 12-year-old Hannah Felver, were selected to compete in the top 100 of the Ohio Idol competition by CEO Steve Wise. If both make it to the next level up, they will perform July 3 at the “Red, White and Boom” Independence Day event in Columbus. The Ohio Idol finals will be held at the Celeste Center during the Ohio State Fair on July 28.

It was the first competition that featured a tie for the top spot, Wells said, adding that only five points separated the top four people. Felver was just a point behind Jones and Fox, the Ohio Idol CEO said and urged her and other vocalists who competed in the local competition to try out for Ohio Idol.

Jones, who has been playing guitar for only four years, said he was inspired to take up the instrument by a character on the Nickelodeon television show “Drake and Josh.”

The Delphos Jefferson freshman, who said he has been performing in a Country band, was pleased with the Ohio Has Talent! win.

He also was excited about being selected for the Ohio Idol competition.

“That’s something really cool,” Jones said, adding that he eventually wants to be a professional blues-rock musician.

Second place in the Ohio Has Talent! competition went to Frequency, a six-member a capella group that includes Wright State University students Chelsie Cooper, Adam Newhouser, Jack Pohl and Bryan Sharpe of Kettering, Jon Hoelle of Jamestown and Audrey Edwards of Urbana. The group earned $250 in prize money.

Third place went to Kaden Hohman, a kindergarten student at Lincolnview Elementary and St. Mary’s Elementary first-grader Sayler Wise, who won $100.

Honorable mention went to Quintin Bouillon, a junior at Crestview High School, and Ryan Wells, a Van Wert High School graduate who now attends Rhodes State College.

The event also featured a tribute to 2011 winner Shirissa Seibert, who died tragically on November 9, 2011, of injuries received in a traffic accident. VWHS student Scott Turner played a piano piece he wrote for Seibert, while a video was shown of Seibert’s 2011 performance.

Sponsors for the fundraising event, which benefits CHP’s Van Wert Area Inpatient Hospice Center, included US Bank (gold sponsor), and First Bank of Berne, First Federal Savings & Loan, First Financial Bank, Edward Jones, Northwest Ohio Screenprinting, P&R Medical Connection, Van Wert Federal Savings Bank and Wilkinson Printing (silver sponsors).

Judges for the event were Kim Mason, Tricia Profit-Kuhn and Gary Adams, while Wally Grimm emceed the event.