The 9th Annual Mr. Whitman Pageant on Friday Oct. 29 featuring several campus performance groups and eight men dancing, singing and modeling to raise money for the Chris Elliot Foundation for Glioblastoma Brain Cancer Research. Under the leadership of Philanthropy chair, junior Abby Neel, Whitman’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chose to put donate all proceeds to the Chris Elliot Fund.

The Fund was discovered by Senior Julie Irvine whose mother was diagnosed with glioblastoma two years ago.

Senior Joe Wheeler, the winner of the pageant, traveled around campus garnering support by crooning “Lullagrams” with the Whitman men’s a cappella group, the Testostertones.

The runner up, Senior Reed Ferris was also an early front runner. Ferris’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity brothers helped him to fundraise by auctioning themselves off on dates.

“[Wheeler and Ferris] deserved their wins. But then, so did the other six contestants,”  Neel said in an email. “These  eight gentlemen are delightful human beings and are positive reflections of the Whitman community as a whole.”

According to Neel, the pageant raised 45,785 dollars and 56 cents, which will go towards the Chris Elliot Fund. Aside from modeling and rehearsing choreographed dances, each of the contestants had a responsibility to fundraise for the philanthropy effort.

Contestants wrote letters, sang and collected cans of student donations –– all in the name of raising money for the Chris Elliot Fund. Wheeler raised an unprecedented more than 7,000 dollars.

The largest individual donation the philanthropy event received this year was 1,000 dollars. This means that a majority of the money came from small donations from members of the Whitman community.

According to the Chris Elliot Fund, the money raised will be enough to launch the Physician Education Pilot Program and to work for research on Avastin chemotherapy treatment.

Irvine, whose mother inspired the charity donation, felt that the event was, “spectacular,” and says that her mother is “very proud.”

“The whole experience really made me feel proactive at a time when many things in my life seem uncontrollable,” she said. “It also really showed me that even a small school like Whitman has the capacity to come together for a collective cause. The whole thing was an honor and an inspiration.”

Photo Credit: Kendra Klag