On Friday, March 3, eight boys, four judges, two hosts, a field reporter, and the entire tech crew and Advanced Journalism staff took to the stage working both in front of and behind the curtain to produce the Mr. North Harford pageant.

   The entire show was pulled together in approximately one week.  Each contestant had to walk in formal wear, strut their swimwear, perform a talent, showcase a group dance, and answer an on-the-spot question.

   Each contestant joined for a different reason, but not one seems to regret their decision. Senior Zach Miller explains he participated “Because it sounded like fun and my brother did it so I wanted to see if I could win too, because he won.”

   Although Miller didn’t win, his only regret, according to him, is not participating in past years.

    Noah DeHart, this year’s youngest participant, claims deciding to join “wasn’t really that big of a deal. I had a great time. I mean first of all, I met a lot of great guys, and I don’t really care what people think of me so it was easy to go up on stage and make a fool of myself.”

  To come up with his acts, DeHart explains “Well for spirit wear, I know we’re all duck farmers around here and everyone makes fun of us, so I figured I’d play into that a little bit, get the fans cheering.”

   The freshman continued on to say, “I like to make people laugh.”

   Miller shares this hobby, and according to audience members his streamer dance definitely made people laugh. Win Berrell, this year’s winner, even claims “I thought Zach was going to win with his streamer dance.”

   Talents ranged from dancing, to body building, to drumming, to stand up comedy.

   Miller comments, that the diversity was one of his favorite parts: “It was kind of fun like to see everyone’s acts, and see how they interpreted the different parts like talent-wise or costume-wise.”

   However, Berrell ended up taking the title (along with the sash and crown) despite how close the competition this year was. Berrell owes his success to his sisters, claiming that they’re the reason he competed in the first place:

   “My sisters wanted me to participate in Mr. North Harford. When I was like in eighth grade, they were like ‘Winnie when you’re a senior you gotta participate in Mr. North Harford.’ And then earlier this year they were like: ‘Winnie! You gotta participate in Mr. North Harford, you already said you were going to in eighth grade!’ So I had to.”

   At the end of the night, the fundraiser was extremely successful, and even the boys who didn’t walk away without the crown were extremely happy for Berrell’s success and the experience as a whole.