UU “Ambassadors of Ukulele” KoAloha Give-Away Contest WINNER!
Posted November 12th, 2011
Hey UUers!
In August we held the UU “Ambassadors of Ukulele” Give-Away Contest where we asked you to email in the ways they would use a brand new KoAloha Tenor Ukulele and a full year membership to UU+ to spread the joy of ukulele. 500 emails later and after over two months of deliberation, we finally chose our winner! (Check out the video above to find out who!)
Thank you so much to everyone who entered – there were so many great entries and we had the hardest time choosing, but don’t fret – there will be more UU ukulele give-aways coming up soon. Also a gigantic MAHALO to the awesome folks over at KoAloha who donated the KTM-00 Tenor KoAloha for the winner.
Hope you have an awesome Saturday! Keep strumming and spreading the ukulele love!
Aloha,
-UU Staff
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10 Comments
Congrats Martin! enjoy that beautiful instrument
i didnt know ppl from all over the world did this..AWESOME!!!!!! congrats to the winner…lucky
Congratulations to Martin! Great job with the kids! Keep up the superb efforts. I mean that.
However, as a contest to describe what creative, exciting efforts one would make as an Ukelele Ambassador this contest really disappointed. Although I am sure the winner is a great Ukulele Ambassador, his story completely failed to inspire. There is no creativity or adventure or really anything interesting to make one feel that UU chose the right winner.
I am not saying I should have won (even if my entry was creative and inspiring and true), though I did see an entry from a girl in Sweden (I think) and it was way more creative and inspiring than that of a school teacher. She sang about bringing joy to those in time of darkness. Sure, it was about winter in Sweden, though it was creative, made me smile, and I had to listen to it a few times and was sure I lost the competition as soon as I heard it. Way more deserving that an elementary school teacher (sorry, Martin).
It appears that including kids will get you a winning entry regardless of how bland the story may be. I mean, seriously? “I’m a school teacher. I teach kids. I will tell other teachers to teach kids. We will occasionally do stuff in our limited community.” (Again, sorry Martin, being a teacher is a great service to the future, though for such a contest I really don’t feel being an elementary school music teacher is a worthy winning entry).
Plus it took UU two and a half months to deliberate on only 500 entries and they came up with a school teacher? I’m sorry if I come across like a sore loser, I’m not. I am simply very disappointed how this competition played out.
At least if there were a seriously deserving winner I would not complain at all. But a school teacher? Seriously? (I am so sorry, Martin, I do think what you do is great, just not “competition winning” great, I mean, if you put together an ukulele orchestra of elementary students and toured the world or the country, or even hitting senior homes or homeless shelters in your area brining awareness to world hunger or the ethical and environmental devastation of eating factory-farmed meat or over population of our planet or child labor and abuse, or even just playing to entertain, then you might be on to something.)
A music teacher teaching students music really seems more like a job rather than an exciting, creative, inspiring Ukulele Ambassador contest winner.
Even though I may not have the best tact I hope you take my notes as non-offensive, constructive criticism. That is what they are meant to be, I’m just a bit wordy and excessively passionate about my ideas and views.
Once again, huge congratulations to Martin, I hope the next Jake Shimabukuro comes from one of your classes. Thanks to UU for putting on the contest, I just hope they find the strength to shoot for the stars with the next contest and not fail to grasp true inspiration.
To the UU guys who put on this contest: sorry life made you put away your space suits.
The Vegan out!
Congrats to Martin! I’m so glad that an educator won the contest! A teacher’s influence lasts a life time for his/her students. Each of Martin’s students will enjoy a lifetime of joy playing and appreciating ukuleles.
Ok, let’s be real. The days are gone when teachers influence lasts a lifetime with students. If we are lucky, the influence lasts through school. How many people played an instrument in school, though do not play it regularly now? I know I am one. And I was not trying to knock being a teacher, I think it’s a wonderful occupation and the service to our children is irreplaceable. What I’m knocking is that after 500 entries and two months deliberation, the most exciting, creative, inspiring entry UU could come up with is an elementary music teacher. Those must have been some 499 boring-ass entries.
Our goal for the contest was go to give the ukulele to someone who was doing their part in creating the new generation of ukulele players. You are making it sound like creativity was the only thing we were using to judge the contest. The post clearly states that creativity is just bonus points, (along with enthusiasm, and honesty) NOT the main criteria we used to judge. From the original post “The August 2011 UU “Ambassadors of Ukulele” Contest hopes to inspire everyone to share the joy of ukulele with others” What you’re doing right now by complaining is the exact opposite.
I actually do not remember the original post stating the goal was to give the ukulele to “someone who was doing their part in creating the new generation of ukulele players.”
If this was the case then only those who were already versed in the ways of the ukulele would be eligible to win. That would suck.
No, I remember the contest being “let us know how you would use the ukulele and UU+ membership to spread the joy of ukulele.” Again with creativity, enthusiasm and honesty being, as you mention, bonus points.
I may admit my post really laid into the creativity aspect, though teachers can be very creative, that was perhaps a bit too focused on my part.
Regardless, as a contest to share how one would spread the joy of ukulele goes, an elementary school music teacher, who most likely does not teach only ukulele to the kids, and who simply does so in the class room (and possibly school concerts), is really not winner worthy. Sorry.
Also, saying that by complaining I am doing the exact opposite of inspiring everyone to share the joy of ukulele is just ridiculous. I support what Martin is doing, it’s his job. I don’t support him having the best entry on sharing the joy of ukulele.
And of the few hundred (at best) people who read my post I doubt any of them have given up ukulele (or the sharing of it) because of what I said. I don’t have to agree with your poor contest winner choice in order to spread the joy of ukulele. I simply need play, and everyone will get a good laugh out of my skills.
Martin is an elementary school music teacher, I think that’s great. I just feel his story is not inspirational to the rest of us, it’s a job. Sure, perhaps to the children for a limited time he may be inspirational, though not to most outside of his classroom… unless that person leads such a mundane life that a common job at a local school is the most inspirational way you can think of to share the joy of ukulele.
I have spoken with friends as well as posted on Facebook about how I was beginning to learn the ukulele and received wonderful feedback and even inspired a few to think about picking up the ukulele as well. I have also shared with my friends many videos of ukulele songs from YouTube, which again solicited excellent feedback. It seems that if I used that as my entry I would have fared much better in the contest.
Unfortunately there is nothing you can say (perhaps nothing I can say either, to have you feel the opposite) that would make me feel that an elementary school music teacher is a winning entry for any contest other than perhaps a contest for elementary school music teachers.
It’s like having a contest on how you would share the joy of medicine (as a field of study, not pills) and having an elementary school nurse win by simply being a nurse. It’s lame.
However, I digress. It is your contest and you can pick whatever winner you want. I apologize if my venting has offended anyone.
“It is not only for what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are responsible.”
- Moliere
As a suggestion: perhaps for the next contest you could let the winner be selected by UU+ peers, perhaps like an online poll or voting, instead of a behind-the-scenes process.
Thank you all for the congrats and I was really suprised and am very excited! I have never ever won something before!!!! I’ll try to make a short video about my work!
I think there were many other entries who were very very good and inspiring! And I don’t want to defend myself and I’m very sorry if my entry and the choice to award my work causes trouble! But I can assure everyone: I try to inspire people around me with the ukulele and I don’t do this for a job! Because I don’t have to do my job with the Ukulele!!!! And I teach 13-19 year-old pupils, in a German Gymnasium (=High School)and even the parents and older siblings start playing the ukulele. But again it’s true that one is chosen and many others would have also been worth winning it. But thanks for Ukuleleunderground for their work and time and for inspiring all of us- they are true heroes!
Nicely put, Martin. Sorry if my rants have diminished your winning this contest at all. I truly hope they did not. Congratulations once again!
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