On March 7, the twelve Mr. Linganore contestants and their assistants competed in multiple contests to prove who is best suited for the role of Mr. Linganore. The contestants’ letters were judged on creativity, originality, appearance, and sweetheart appeal.  

This year’s contestants wrote to loved ones, friends, pets and even the ocean. The first place winner was Matthew Gelhard, who was portraying the famous Ricky Bobby for the main event.

Gelhard was a big hit when he decided to write his letter to a dog, Bucky. He wrote this because his assistant, Adam Seymour, and he had a touching childhood memory together when they first found Bucky.

Beau Cameron received second place, and Alex Ismael received third place. Cameron stood out among the other contestants because he wrote a poem. 

“I love poetry, poems are just honest expressions of humanity,” said Cameron.

The purpose of the sweetheart letter competition is to compose a letter using conversation heart candies. The letter could be written to the person or thing of the contestants’ choosing. The English teachers who judged the contest liked several letters. They especially loved Jake Santis’ letter because it was formal and had tons of imagery. He began his letter with the address, “To Whom My Heart Extends the Furthest.”

Once I figured out how the competition was run, I had a lot of fun judging,” said new English teacher Angela Smith.

During the other two lunch shifts other competitions were held, such as cake decorating and building a freestanding gumdrop tower in which both turned out to be very competitive and fun.