DECA and Marketing II’s Mr. Webster pageant took place Nov. 28, in Knight Auditorium and included talents, dancing and other traditional pageant activities.
Senior Ray McIntyre was voted Mr. Webster over 11 other contestants, all of whom applied and went through interviews in September and early October.
“Seeing his reaction to winning was genuine and fantastic, I would argue that Ray just has such a great energy about him,” Mr. Webster judge Jon Petter said.
Senior Sam Getz was runner-up, and senior Fanuel Achinda received Mr. Congeniality.
The winner and runner up were decided 60 percent by judges and 40 percent by the crowd vote. Mr. Congeniality was decided based on the crowd vote alone.
“I thought I was going to be the last person to win,” McIntyre said about his prospects.
McIntyre mentioned contestants with a more “stage appropriate” talent, such as Getz, as the ones he predicted to come away with the title.
When his turn was up for the talent category, McIntyre wheeled out racks of clothing he picked to help style Petter for a fictional 80s themed party.
“It was so unique. I’ve been doing this all these years, and no one has ever done anything like that,” Mr. Webster judge Eric Dunn said.
He also brought fellow seniors Christian Ragain and Rachel Fisher on stage to model his original designs. Fisher was modeling a jumpsuit that later appeared in the Lindenwood University Fashion Show on Dec. 7.
“When it comes to fashion, Ray is very passionate, and he knows what he is doing. It’s kind of a hard thing to portray on a stage, but he was able to bring together two really cool factors: styles that he likes and pieces that he’s made, and he did a really good job of bringing those two together,” senior Parker Bont said.
Although fashion is not commonly seen in the pageant, it has been a constant in McIntyre’s life.
“When I was super little, my mom actually just gave up her dream of being in the [fashion] industry for the sake of raising a family,” McIntyre said.
The winner cites his mother as well as a constant interest in “how people like to express themselves” as reasons for his attention to fashion.
McIntyre intends to double major in fashion design and marketing in college, and eventually hopes to become a creative director of his own brand or an already-established brand. He believes starting his brand in high school before receiving a formal fashion design degree shows that “It doesn’t take schooling to learn yourself.”
“Ray genuinely cares about everything he does and all those he interacts with. You can really feel that when you work, teach, learn, or talk with him,” Petter said.
In terms of his own clothing, McIntyre said, “The direction I want to go towards is (A) stuff that I would actually wear that I don’t see and (B) making stuff that can be someone’s favorite… and they can have memories with it, but also still keep it relatively affordable.”
McIntyre said, “I wanted to pursue something that my mom never got to do. I want to show her, ‘Hey, we can do this.’”
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Lindsey Bennett – Feature EditorThis is feature editor Lindsey Bennett’s first year on ECHO staff, but she made several contributions while taking journalism class her sophomore year. She has attended JournalismSTL’s Spring Conference and MIPA’s J-Day. |
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