On Saturday, Lyons Township High School senior Alex Edwards took home the Mr. LT crown at the school’s annual talent show fundraiser though the big winners will be the students who will nab the Jack Kunkle Memorial Scholarship.
The show is one of the biggest fundraisers for the scholarship and this year’s event raised at least $6,489.70, though the ticket sales had not yet been counted and the event fundraising will remain open for another week and anyone who would like to donate can do so through the school’s website.
Still, considering last year’s event raised a total of $5,166.50 the event is proving to be an annual winner in the community, as Edwards, also named Mr. Popularity, brought in $2,057.89 by himself. Mr. Popularity is given to the competitor who raises the most money. Thomas Townsend was named the other big winner for the evening, earning Mr. Congeniality.
Besides being the biggest fundraiser, the show also featured a packed performance bill, an ambitious talent portion that included a live cooking demonstration, and a longer lead time than in years past, with rehearsals starting in late January. The show met with some slight technical difficulties — including an electric keyboard that wouldn’t turn on at first — but the audience remained in high spirits as performer Max Christensen put on an impromptu and unaccompanied dance demonstration that managed to wow audiences and then the tech crew did fix the keyboard issue, allowing Christensen to then play a set on top of his dance number.
Even so, some of the riskier ventures paid off without a hitch. Mike Badrov’s cooking demonstration — cheeseburgers — raised as much smoke as eyebrows, and afterward, judge Superintendent Brian Waterman said he couldn’t help but worry the smoke alarms would go off — but they didn’t and the burgers got no complaints either.
By the end of the evening, the friends, family, and fans of local talent packed the Reber Center at LTHS North walked away in high spirits as Peter Geddeis, the pageant’s director for years, said he was thrilled with the result of months of practice.
“The donations kept coming, right up until showtime,” Geddeis said. “It was incredible.”
The donations help college-bound high school seniors, but they also support the memory of Kunkle, the first student to win Mr. LT in 2014. Kunkle was a popular student during his four years at the school and something of an inspiration to the community at large as he had struggled with brain cancer since age 11 and the disease killed him months after graduation.
The show struggled some during the worst of the pandemic as in 2020 the in-person event was suddenly canceled weeks before its staging as the country went into shutdown. The show was broadcast over LT television, however, and despite a drop in attendance in the years following, the donations have climbed, first with one student raising over $1,000 and then this year three students raising over $1,000 with Edwards bringing in just over $2,000. That, plus a packed house, was all good news to Geddeis.
“The way I base success on is audience reaction and the amount of money raised,” Geddeis said. “Based on that, I’d say tonight was an unadulterated success.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
