Sorority raises funds with “Mr. Pink” pageant

By Jason Mount

Rider’s Greek Life aims to be more than just a way for students to get to know each other better. Aside from social activities, the organizations also engage in philanthropy through a number of events, including Zeta Tau Alpha’s (ZTA) “Mr. Pink” event. 

The “Mr. Pink” pageant took place on Sept. 16, and is one of the numerous fundraisers ZTA holds to raise money for breast cancer awareness and education.

Junior elementary education major and ZTA’s Philanthropy Chair Amanda Borell elaborated on what the pageant entails for contestants.

“‘Mr. Pink’ is an event where we get boys from each fraternity on campus to come on stage and entertain an audience,” Borell explained. “Through dressing up, answering trivia questions and performing a talent, the boys helped us raise $1,811 towards breast cancer and awareness.”

At the event itself, the crowd buzzed with energy moments before the contestants took the stage for the first event: dressing up as a sister of ZTA.

The boys’ outfits attempted to portray femininity with an array of costume pieces, including wigs, glitter, glasses and clothes borrowed from some of the sisters themselves.

Junior elementary education major Elaina Stark commented on this particular segment of the pageant and enjoyed the creative ways the competitors dressed up.

“My favorite part of the event was seeing the creativity that the guys had to put into dressing up like a Zeta,” Stark said.

Following the dress-up portion, contestants then had to answer trivia questions about ZTA, and any correct answers contributed points to their individual scores. 

After trivia, the boys had a chance to run into the audience and collect more donations as the stage was being set for the final act of the pageant.

Finally, it was time for the contestants to shine and show off their talents. One by one, they took to the stage and performed their specialities. Acts included singing, dancing, stand up comedy and science experiments.

As the points were being totaled, music filled the Bart Luedeke Center Theater as audience members were invited to climb on stage and dance.

Once the final scores were tallied, the contestants lined up on stage and waited with anticipation to hear who would win. With everyone’s focus on the boys, the winner was announced: Brady Clark from Tau Kappa Epsilon, with runner-up being Anthony Tomaselli from Lambda Theta Phi and third place being Jake Guevarra representing Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Stark expressed her gratitude for the success of the event, and mentioned more events happening in the coming months.

This event has allowed the sorority sisters of ZTA to raise so much money toward our philanthropy of breast cancer education and awareness,” Stark said. “In the next month of October we will also be selling T-shirts and having a basket raffle that will allow our sorority to raise more money to help fight breast cancer.”

Audience members left entertained by the pageant while ZTA deemed their fundraising event a success. Sisters of the sorority advise students to be on the lookout for more events in support of breast cancer awareness during October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Published in the 09/18/19 edition.