Sonoma County Stars of Tomorrow Selects $5000 Grand Prize Winner at Virtual Event

On Tuesday, June 16th, ten finalists competed in the Sonoma County Stars of Tomorrow, hosted by Redwood Empire Stereocasters and powered by Sonic.

The finale event was live-streamed on the radio station websites where the ten talented teen finalists performed to win thousands of dollars in prizes.

The panel of celebrity judges had their work cut out for them, as they watched and reviewed each performance. In the end, the judges selected Chloe Cullen, 18 from Petaluma as the top grand prize winner, receiving a $5000 account at Community First Credit Union. Benjamin Carver, 14 from Santa Rosa was the first runner up, receiving a $1500 gift certificate to Montgomery Village.

The other eight finalists were: Bella Blue from Petaluma; Carson Hay, Hanna Hosier, Sophia Kandler, Ella Kushins, Julian Soto, from Santa Rosa; Cambryel Salfi from Sonoma; and Elenise Tuaua from Rohnert Park, each receiving a prize.

The live streamed show was hosted by radio personalities from all five of the Redwood Empire Stereocasters stations: Brent Farris, Debbie Abrams and Mike Adams from KZST; Mike Waterman and Sue Hall from 102.7 The Wolf; Karen Lehman and Troy Duran from Jazzy 99.1; Justin Fray, Carey Edwards and Sue Bonzell from 93.7 The Bull; and news director Ted Williams.

The panel of celebrity judges consisted of: Tony Gonzalez from Transcendence Theater Company, Julie Nation of Julie Nation Academy, Tommy Rickard from Wonderbread 5, John Iervolino from Urban Island Films and Elaina D. Smith, national radio personality.

The original call for entries brought in video submissions from 36 high school student contestants for online voting where more than 73,000 votes were cast.