Hoko Livigisitone has been awarded an AFS Pasifika Scholarship and is going on exchange to Denmark, to raise funds for his exchange he organised a talent quest at his school.

We arrived on Friday evening to quite a packed out school hall at Aorere College for a talent quest that had been organised for Hoko Fiavaai's AFS exchange to Denmark.

The MC for the night, Johnson Raele (aka Cookie from Flava - a well know r&b, hop hop radio station in aux), and he did a splendid job of not only introducing the acts, attempting to control the crowd, and also providing his own entertainment by filling in the gaps with his own singing - on one instance he sang "Dream Girl" by Kolohe Kai (a well known Hawaiian reggae group to most Polynesian youth) to one of the AO teachers. He also did a lot of draws giving away CDs and DVDs which had been donated by Flava Radio.

There were HEAPS of acts - a few solo singers, who either sang accapella or with a guitar, singing groups, solo guitarists, dance groups, and solo dancers. They were absolutely a very talented group of students. For us, our absolute favourite act ended up taking out first place - he was a very enthusiastic young boy who danced to "Riding Solo" by Jason Derulo. The amount of passion he put into his dance moves, along with the courage to be on stage alone, really made him a clear winner. Second place went to another solo dancer, a young girl, who performed a Polynesian dance, and third place went to a hip hop dance group.

Another crowd favourite was indeed "Boy Gaga", who was a young male, dressed scantily and strategically with rubbish bags to resemble an outfit fit for lady gaga, did a solo dance to his idol's "Bad Romance". He must of performed at other AO College events as he was quite well known.

The final act was Hoko himself doing a traditional Samoan Siva. With this type of siva, supporters of the main dancer all go up around him/her and dance to support them. It is a very colourful, loud and cheerful type dance. With this particular dance, it was the opportunity for people to place money in a bowl which was on the stage as donations for Hoko. Hoko is obviously very loved by AO College as he had a stage full of supporting dancers, and many people taking up money to donate.

It was an absolute pleasure to see the enthusiasm of the school, and the attendees on the night, to help Hoko with his exchange to Denmark. The crowd cheering was deafening at time, but you can clearly see how amazing their school spirit is! Donations for Hoko’s exchange exceeded $2000!!!