Published on December 10, 2025
Amplify Advisory Committee – Real Life Experience With Real Life Outcomes
Over the last 12 years, the Amplify Advisory Committee has contributed well over 10,000 hours of volunteer time to St. Albert and the young residents they hope to spotlight.
“That’s a very conservative number," shares Kathleen Bell, a Community Cultural Coordinator with the City of St. Albert and the Committee's liaison. “There’s so many hours spent planning and creating at home—well above and beyond the meetings and events. This is a group that truly gives so much to their community.”
As Amplify approaches its thirteenth year of planning and producing arts-based projects, workshops, concerts and activities for youth across the city, Bell promises that the commitment from its volunteers stems from the fact that volunteering for Amplify is actually really fun.
“It’s truly a results-focused volunteer experience,” explains Bell. “We spend months preparing for our events and then the Committee gets to see it all come together. From the programming decisions they’ve made to their friends showing up to enjoy the activities, the impact of their work becomes acutely clear and that’s really fulfilling.”
Those events include the beloved The Show, Amplify’s annual battle of the bands, as well as a poetry open mic night, an art exhibition and craft market, and Illuminate, a multi-disciplinary art in the park event. Each year in January, the new Committee meets to decide which activities they will renew for the following year. And then the members dig into the details—divvying up projects, roles and duties.
“Each Committee member gets real life experience in event planning,” says Bell. “Whether that means they are stage managing our battle of the bands, emceeing at Canada Day, doing the hard work of setting up tables and pop-up tents at Illuminate, or emailing instructors to program workshops, each role corresponds with a job that needs to be done at any festival, performance and production.”
Currently, Amplify is looking to recruit a crop of new members to help achieve its goal of elevating young artists in the community in 2026. The group meets in the evening on the second and fourth Thursday of every month from January to November at St. Albert Place. The deadline to apply is January 4, 2026. New members must be between Grade 7 and age 21 and be passionate about supporting youth arts in the community.
“It’s a really fun way to volunteer and build your résumé” says Bell. “You make new friends, learn a lot, test out new skills and truly get to help your peers while you’re doing it. It’s a commitment, for sure, but it’s worth it.”
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Last edited: December 8, 2025