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By NATHAN HOWELL | Special to the Reporter  

HELENA – Over the past two weeks more than 15 residents performed talents and nearly 700 people participated in the voting process for the Helena Virtual Festival and Social Distancing Talent Show.

The winning submission featured 5-year old Pippa Daspit singing a parody of the classic “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, receiving more than 500 likes.

“Pippa was extremely excited,” said her father Tommy Daspit. “She is just over the moon and excited about it. It was very heartwarming to see how thrilled she was everyday when she saw her totals going up.”

For winning the festival Pippa was awarded with a prize of $50 which she used to buy herself a toy horse that she had been wanting.

Helena City Council President Hewy Woodman created the contest with the idea of bringing the community together to support each other and spread awareness about the importance of staying home and social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I think it went really well we had more participation than I realized. I was really happy with the turnout,” Woodman said.  “I think people joined in the right spirit and participated in a very positive way. I think Pippa and her dad did a great job with the video and they had a great message.”

Woodman and Daspit both added that the best thing residents could do right now is continue to follow social distancing procedures and guidelines issued by the state and federal government to continue to slow the spread of the virus.

All of the submissions for the festival are still available for viewing and can be found at Facebook.com/groups/HelenaVirtualFest.