Brett Gilson '13 and Jasmine Richards '10 were crowned "Mr. and Ms. Big Green" in Thursday night's spirit competition after wowing an energetic crowd with their unique talents and flare-enhanced stage presence. Contestants in this year's event Student Assembly's third annual Mr. and Ms. Big Green school spirit competition vied to raise money for charities such as DREAM High Adventure, The Good Neighbor Health Clinic and Dartmouth Students for Haiti.
During the contest's talent section, Richards wooed the crowd members by teaching them stretches and Gilson showed off his unicyling prowess.
"It was a lot of fun being on stage with everyone," Gilson said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Dartmouth has been more magical than Hogwarts and it's great to be able to give to Big Brothers, Big Sisters."
Audience members donated money to charities throughout the event and the donations were split evenly between the winners' chosen organizations. Richards raised funds for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and Gilson represented Big Brother, Big Sisters of America.
Gilson said he saw the competition as a fun opportunity to celebrate his enthusiasm for the school. "I feel like I'm on top of the world," Richards said. "I wanted to hopefully bring home a life-size cut out of Zac Efron and I did."
Gilson and Richards won Canoe Club gift certificates as well as cut-outs of the Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron, respectively.
The competition's talent section featured events including a bro-septathalon by Dan Volgenau '10, in which he showcased his position as "most valuable bro" by performing a timed series of "bro" events including chugging a red bull and showing off his pong skills and a performance of N'Sync's "Tearing up My Heart" by Jensen Lowe '10.
Priya Shanmugam '13 demonstrated "animal sounds of Dartmouth" including her interpretation of what a Lone Pine would say if it could speak while Stephanie Lee 11 flaunted a chicken suit and danced to "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly.
Gilson received a standing ovation for his performance during the flare walk-off in which he stripped down from all-blue ski gear to a green spandex body suit. Gilson topped off his act by jumping down from the stage, dancing in the aisles and interacting with audience members.
After the talent show, contestants filled the stage to participate in a brief, spontaneous dance-off. Contestants were judged based on the volume of the audience's cheers.
The question-and-answer session featured in last year's show was eliminated this year.
The competition, aimed at "celebrating Dartmouth and bringing us together as a community," was first held in 2008 after Uthman Olagoke '11, co-chair of the Assembly student life committee, conceived the idea his freshman year.
"We went to the Yale for the Ivy Conference and I had the idea of holding a competition at Dartmouth that would be similar to their Mr. Yale' competition which is just for guys," Olagoke said.
Olagoke said he had hoped to have a diverse group of people from different points on campus compete.
"We read through the applications and got a sense of people," Olagoke said. "We want people who are fun and who know how to have a good time."
Olagoke said that the competition was designed to encourage a sense of community.
"It's not a serious thing," he said. "It's just meant to promote school spirit."
