On Wednesday November 19th, the Sigma Kappa sorority held their fourth annual King of Hearts pageant in the Jarman Auditorium at 7 p.m.
The King of Hearts pageant is a male pageant show, where male students were encouraged to come and take the stage. Professor Rhonda Scarrow, Dr. John Miller and Dr. David Coles judged the pageant based on the opening, best Longwood attire, question/responses and a talent portion and Sigma Kappa sister Mary Constantino and Nick Conigliaro were the MC’s for the event.
The purpose of this event was to raise money for Sigma Kappa’s philanthropy, which is the Sigma Kappa Foundation. The Sigma Kappa Foundation provides funding for higher education and leadership programming opportunities; it enables the sorority to endure their friendships, memories and help keep the dynamic within the organization allowing it to remain strong. Its mission is “To create and fund leadership, scholarship and philanthropic initiatives that reflect the values and spirit of Sigma Kappa Sorority.”
Within recent years the sorority as a whole had nearly $2.5 million in grants and funds were raised for Alzheimer’s disease. The chapter was granted money for educational, leadership programming and scholarships.
Katherine Thiel is the Vice President of Philanthropic Service and helped organize the event along with her committee Amber Archer, Ashley McMath, Katie Lyons, Jennie Thomas, Taylor Scott, Meghan O’Conner, Kelsey Paulus, Debbie Buynak, Allie Warner and Emily Hue.
There were a total of 10 males who participated in the event, each ranging from sophomores to seniors. There were at least six seniors: Devon Johnson, David Garvis, Luke Balmer, Joey Siverd, Shawn Anderson, and Canian Townsend; three sophomores: Hunter Haywood, Timothy Owen, and Orlando Baker, followed by one junior: Austin Wilson.
The pageant began with a dance of the contestants being paired up with a sister of Sigma Kappa. Each song had a different dance
When the pageant began, each contestant was asked to introduce himself followed by a fun fact that no one new about them. The answers received from each contestant had the crowd laughing, Anderson said, “I always have to order a bacon burger wherever I go,” which had the crowd in tears from laughing followed by many other funny remarks from the rest of the contestants.
The next category was the talent portion where the contestants were encouraged to display their talents while trying to wow the judges and crowd. The talents ranged anywhere from demonstrating how to hunt a turkey to performing a comedy skit. Townsend paid tribute to his “father” actor Terry Crews from White Chicks and performed a variety of talents that Crews demonstrated while in the movie—this not only had the crowd laughing, but he also encouraged the crowd to sing along to “A Thousand Miles.”
While the contestants were changing for the next category, sister Kelsey Paulus asked the audience for the first 5-7 participants to play a game while waiting. The game was to find objects within the audience and whoever found all of the objects successfully received a gift basket. Although it was a close race, Betty Brown was the winner and received the gift basket.
Once done changing, MC’s Constantino and Conigliaro were given questions to ask the contestants and they were required to give an informative/witty response. Some of the questions ranged anywhere from proudest moment, to perfect date and Longwood traditions.
The contestants were later given the task of going within the audience and collect only change in their plastic bags, no dollar bills. Whoever had the most change with the least amount of dollar bills would receive a prize.
After this, the contestant once again went to change and Paulus regained the stage, and instead of a game there was a dance-off. The first 6 participants would start dancing to a popular song and the audience would vote to see who had the best dance skills. The first round was a dance to shake it off, one participant was voted off and the second round was to shake it off again only this time when the audience voted everyone was considered a winner.
The contestants were all lined up and ready to see who would win the title of being the King of Hearts. The winner of Mr. Congeniality and a $20 Pino’s gift card was Devon Johnson and the 2014 winner of the King of Hearts pageant was Canian Townsend who also won a dinner for two at the restaurant Fishing Pig.
Ultimately, Sigma Kappa had a great turnout of people coming to support their event and donate to the cause. All proceeds will be going to the Sigma Kappa Foundation which support many causes including, Alzheimer’s/Gerontology, Leadership Development, Scholarships, Sister-to-Sister Disaster Recovery Fund, Educational Area Grants, and Maine Sea Coast Mission.
