Chance! Turns 20!
Chance! Most Improved 2019 and 5th Place
Chance! Was born January 2001 at the age of 192 years old, blue, brown and hazel eyes, hair colour changes on a whim, and weight… well we just won’t go there.
20 Years later January 2021 at the age of 251, blue, brown, green and hazel eyes, hair colour changes depending on the amount of grey and weight…well we still won’t go there…
Chance! Has changed over the years but the love we have for each other and singing keeps us going…
Original members Judy Somshor. Tina Aseltine, Helen Alain and Carolyne Saumer morphed into the Chance! Of today, Sandee Blackburn, Tina Aseltine, Lil Fedechko and Carolyne (Saumer) Oehlerking who have been singing together for 14 of the 20 years.
We have had so much fun, tears, drama and rewards during our contests, road trips, retreats and performances. A few highlights:
Chance! Is lovingly referred to as the “Green Team” … our collective favourite colour. Original Chance! Had green denim jackets which were ceremoniously passed to the new members Lil and Sandee. Still worn on occasion for camp skits but they have been replaced with a more current version of green denim.
Carolyne knocking the pitchpipe off of Tina’s hip flying on to the edge of the stage during the untune in contest … we recovered it and some in the audience hadn’t even noticed what had happened. Tori Postma was the Showmanship Judge and commented on how impressed she was that we handled it so well… not missing a note or allowing the incident to impede our performance.
A singing Valentine to the wrong guy at a dealership… the guy came to the lobby…let us complete the song and then told us he was the wrong “Frank”… he was concerned about the media that was filming (we wondered what his REAL story was) and followed the camera guy around to make sure he wasn’t aired on tv…we finally found the right “Frank” under a car in the garage… so we sang to him as he worked under his car.
Our bellhop guy in Surrey at the Sheraton greets us every year for our Thursday morning in room breakfasts. We sang for him every year. One year he even sang for us. Another year he has a wild ocean rescue story. He tells us stories about his family and kids…a special contest memory.
The year we put Lil on 2 Vancouver phonebooks for our contest photo so we were all the same height!!!
2019 Chance! Was honored with 5th place medals and Most Improved Quartet Award. We were thrilled…however only Sandee and Carolyne were in the auditorium to accept the unexpected award…Tina and Lil had gone back to the hotel to wait for the pizza to arrive for the AHC Pizza party the competing quartets host every year.
Our connection goes beyond singing and is quite indescribable…the support we have given and give to each other is immeasurable. “Chance made us Sisters, Hearts made us Friends”.
