Hackleburg video needs your votes

All right gang, it's time to help out your fellow northwest Alabamians.

The youth group at Hackleburg Church of God of Prophecy has submitted a video to a contest run by the CMT network.

And they recently found out their video is among four finalists nationwide.

Here's where we come in: The grand prize winner is determined by online voting.

If you want to vote for the local kids, go to cmt.com, and type in "CMT Hometown Homegrown Edition" in the search box and the link to it will pop up.

That's where the four 2-minute videos, including Hackleburg's, can be seen and voted on.

CMT will come to the hometown that wins, where it will air a presentation of the CMT Top 20 Countdown.

I watched the video, and I've gotta say, those kids are pretty good.

The whole thing started two summers ago, long before anyone even knew about the contest.

Karen Weatherly had a class at the University of North Alabama that included a project on making a video, her husband, Josh Weatherly, said. "I told her 'If you do this, do it funny,' " he said.

So, they decided to get the youth group from their church. They put them at various spots in Hackleburg, as a sort of tongue-in-cheek tour hosted by 14-year-old Zach Anglin.

They showed the finished result to the church congregation, who loved it.

Then, one night, Josh Weatherly was watching CMT and they announced the contest. So he talked with Karen and the youth group and they decided to give it a shot.

There was one major problem, though. "Our original production was about 30 minutes long and had to be chopped into 2 minutes," Josh Weatherly said. "We filmed it again and did some editing and got it to 2 minutes."

They submitted it, and found out about a week ago that they are among the four finalists.

Josh Weatherly said the video pokes some good-natured fun at life in the quiet, small town.

Zach and the crew start out by giving the town a good plug. They mention it's the hometown of country music icon Sonny James.

Then they travel to such spots as a water tower, post office, restaurant and even a tanning business where Zach proudly proclaims that's where he goes to get his farmer's tan.

They also go to the Wrangler warehouse and conclude with Zach bidding farewell from between two chicken houses.

That's a lot to pile into 2 minutes, but it's good entertainment. "We just had to cram as much into it as we could, so it's kind of choppy," Josh Weatherly said. "But they said in the contest that it may be a little rough, since it's got to be held down to 2 minutes."

Choppy or not, I hope it wins for the youths, who seemed to have had a great time doing it. And who knows where this could take them?

"We're kind of hoping if word gets out and the right person sees it, something could come out of that, because everybody who sees it loves it," Weatherly said.

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com.