UPDATE, Oct. 23: During half-time of the homecoming game, 2009 queen Sarah Hollingsworth crowned Jenna Yee as the 2010 queen. Cassidy Hutchins was crowned senior princess.

Homecoming festivities continued with the annual queen pageant, Oct. 21, where candidates participated in activities to win votes. The event was held in Ground Zero during chapel period.

Student leadership emcees Justin Wilson and Bridget Teixeira, both seniors, opened the pageant by presenting the five queen nominees: Madison Dooley, Cassidy Hutchins, Mary Reynolds, Kory Thompson and Jenna Yee.

A panel of judges, consisting of math teacher Jane Gillespie, journalism adviser Greg Stobbe and secretary Brenda Warkentin, scored each candidate throughout the pageant.

For the first stunt, the candidates were blindfolded and tasked with finding one of the king nominees, using only their hands to identify the candidate.

“I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage,” Dooley said. “I was busy thinking of ways how I could see through the blindfold. But I ended up finding Josiah [Ford] easily.”

After this activity, the king candidates dressed up each still-blindfolded queen in an eclectic costume. The nominees then flaunted their outfits for the audience in an impromptu fashion show.

“My favorite part about the pageant was when the boys dressed us up,” Reynolds said. “It was fun getting them involved on stage.”

The pageant paused for the presentation of the queen bash video, a traditional project in which the candidates respond to questions about the other nominees. (The 8-minute video is embedded at the bottom of this article.)

“I liked it [the pageant] because of the bash video; it was very competitive and mean,” Sarah Schoneman, ’12, said. “Jenna was the best because of her ‘sensei’ part in the video.”

Following the bash video, the queen candidates performed in a talent show. Each nominee used a combination of available objects in her presentation.

“My favorite part was the talent show,” Yee said. “Everybody else had grabbed everything, so I just ended up using whatever was left.”

Through the four stunts and competitions, Wilson believes that the student body saw a unique side of the candidates.

“The queen pageant shows that the nominees can improvise, and we were able to see their true personalities,” Wilson said. “I think the audience had fun and was able to see the queens in ways different than how they usually might see them.”

Following the pageant, students had the opportunity to vote for queen candidates at tables in the Ground Zero quad. Student leadership will count the votes and announce the queen at half-time of the varsity game at homecoming, Oct. 22.

With one day left before homecoming, Thompson anticipates the fanfare of the queen’s crowning.

“I’m so excited to see everybody’s dress and all the floats,” Thompson said. “I’m also really excited about the king pageant.”

The next event of homecoming week will be the king dance, Oct. 22. For more information, read the Oct. 15 article, Homecoming week schedule, 2010. For more coverage of homecoming events, read the Oct. 19 article, Pageant pits princesses against nerves.

Elise Porter, Mary Hierholzer, Jessica Massie and Brooke Stobbe also contributed to this article.

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