A young girl who was terminally ill took the stage at last year’s Bermuda’s Youth Got Talent auditions.For her it wasn’t all about winning or impressing anyone else with her dance moves, it was the sheer enjoyment she got from performing and sharing that passion with others.Executive producer Kelly Hunt said watching that child get to live out a dream was one of the most memorable moments from last year’s BYGT competition.Another special moment came when she watched a young girl with hearing issues get her time in the spotlight, when judge Patrina (Power Girl) Paynter opted to feature her on her Power 95 radio show.Mrs Hunt said: “Those are the moments that some of these kids will remember forever and who knows if that will be life changing or not, especially if that kind of encouragement isn’t something they typically get in their daily lives.“So if we can highlight and showcase our youth in a more positive light than they are getting now it’s a new label and something they have to look up to and can be encouraged by.”BYGT will be gearing up for its second season, with sign-up happening from now until March 1.The audition phase of the talent competition — which includes singing, acting and dancing — will kick off on March 21.The winner of the competition will take home $5,000. They also have the chance to been seen by a record producer from the US, who will take a spot as this year’s guest judge.Mrs Hunt said the interesting part of the competition was seeing a variety of different talents take the stage. Last year they saw a group doing tricks with Chinese yo-yos, a few spoken word artists, salsa dancers and a group of hot-steppers.They also had some fantastic instrumentalists including a violinist and flute player audition, as well as some bands who had written their own music.She said: “It’s open to all talents. It’s not just singers and dancers, we really want to encourage involvement with anything they are passionate about. We don’t want to limit it to anything in particular.”Considering some of the negative publicity facing the Island’s young people, Mrs Hunt said it was particularly important for organisers to focus on encouraging and supporting youth to be involved in positive activities and away from the streets.Spearheaded by the Coalition for the Protection of Children, BYGT serves to also raise financial support and public awareness about what the charity does.Mrs Hunt said: “The Coalition has been around for 20 years and it’s just been devastating to see young people get lost or end up involved in gang behaviour.“It’s really been a challenge for us in what we do to figure out how to stem that and offer options because many [young people] feel like they don’t have anything else they can do or there isn’t any real hope or support for them in any other activity.”The arts are something many attribute to giving them a positive break — including judge Nadanja Bailey who has said comedy saved his life.Mrs Hunt said the charity wanted to showcase the same young demographic that they are advocating for at the Coalition.“It’s getting more and more challenging to raise money and we wanted to do something unique and fun and create healthy competition and excitement on the Island for the youth and really get people to say ‘wow’.“Even as the organiser I was just blown away by some of the talent we have out there.”She said she was “really pleased” to see the support from the community, which rallied behind the young performers.Last year they had over 8,000 texts towards voting and numerous hits on their youtube videos. “I think the community got behind it and got excited about it and hope they do the same this time. It’s Bermuda’s first televised talent show and is for a really good cause,” she said.Useful websites: www.bygt.bm; www.coalition.bm