Gabriel Omlor

Since Emma started Kindergarten she's been going on field trips, making new friends, and joined the girl scouts. Gabriel has been feeling a bit cheated. So Holly saw an ad on TV for the school StarBound, and decided to take him in. We always felt Gabe was a little character so we wanted to take him somewhere he could express himself. Starbound has classes for little ones called "Little stars" where young kids can get up on stage and do some role laying, and overall just have fun.

Well after the first class Holly was approached by the director of the school. She was very impressed with Gabriel., and wanted to know if we would be willing to come back in on Saturday for an audition. Turns out they were doing a talent search in the area. Starbound is based in New York City but has an office in Toledo. The Toledo office is where Katie Holmes and Alyson Stoner were discovered. Well we went in on Saturday to give it a try. Gabriel was by far the youngest person in the room, out of about thirty people. They gave him a little line to recite up on stage ahead of time. He was so excited to be there. Before they even started he was walking around on stage singing to everyone. The director explained how it would work and who would be called up. When she asked if anyone had any questions, Gabe raised his hand and started to recite his line. Which she thought was adorable. When he got up on stage he did an amazing job on his little line. He then went on to do a walk on the catwalk, he put his hand on his hip and strutted down smiling. Later he also wanted to sing again so he did The Itsy Bitsy Spider. All without a single inhibition. Holly said she was so proud of our little guy she was about to cry.

The next Monday, Wendi (Starbound) called Holly at work. THEY LOVED HIM! She explained that Gabriel is a very special and unique little boy. She said she would have to look at hundreds of kids his age to find one like him. She said not only is he cute, but not very many children his age are so friendly, and fearless to get up in front of everyone. She then explained to Holly that every year in New York City, there is a scouting event called the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA). Where over 450, Agents, Directors, Producers and scouts come from all over the world to find their new models, talent, or actors. Several people were found at this show. It is apparently the place to go to be found. Stars like Alyson Stoner, Katie Holmes, Ashton Kucther, Eva Longoria, Elijiah Wood, and others were discovered here. You can only come by invitation from their accredited schools.

Wendi and Starbound is one of these schools. She gets calls from people all over the country to look at their kids. She can only take 15 children out of the hundreds she sees. She wants to take Gabriel! She said that she is 99% positive he would be approached by several agencies. She also doesn't make any money unless the children she takes get signed at the end of the show. So she can only take her top choices. Whom she has complete faith in. Her school has won several awards for the talent she brings. The IMTA is a week long event held in July of 2008. She wants to scholarship him to go to this show. Which means he would take the classes at her school for free. In preparation for the show in July. Holly would be going with him as part of a package set forth by the IMTA. Wendi at StarBound uses her own airline miles and hotel credits to help pay for the children she takes. She also uses money from local sponsors to go toward each child's trip. The package includes airfare, registration, auditions, hotel accommodations, photos with a New York studio, rehearsals, etc.....

This is something we are very excited about for Gabriel and he is actually really syked about it! He just thinks the whole thing is so much fun. So Holly and I have about 7 1/2 months to come up with the money we need to pay for the rest of the IMTA package. So obviously, no vacation this year! Wendi has given us a packet on how to help raise money from businesses to sponsor Gabriel. There are a few things we are going to do in an attempt to raise money for the trip. First, I'm going to speak with WTOL, and ask about a Saturday spot on the show, which could be an ongoing thing following his trip and mentioning StarBound of course. There are a few area businesses that Holly's sister knows of that could use some website services or commercials. And since Holly and I can perform these services, we could possibly get donations in exchange for our help. Wendi also suggested asking family members to help sponsor Gabriel as well. This is the point in our speech where we BEG for help! We are in fact BEGGING. We don't usually ask for things like this but it is expensive. So if there are any family members who would like to help us, we would be so very grateful for any amount of help. Please don't feel like you have to give us anything! We are simply asking. We are even willing to offer an exchange of our skills for donations from anyone. Also, if anyone has any other ideas on fundraising or would like to help do any fundraising, PLEASE let us know or feel free to give us a hand. If you have any other questions or would just like to talk about it give us a buzz. Below are the links to StarBound and The IMTA Event. We will put our address below as well if anyone would like to help us.

We are so very proud and excited for Gabriel. This is something we have talked over a lot. Thanks to everyone. We appreciate it!


StarBound
http://www.starboundnyc.com/

International Model and Talent Association
http://www.imta.com/
http://imta.com/pressVideoHigh.aspx