Gallery • 5 Photos

Courtesy of Haley Cleaves

Junior Tom Stavrou sits with host Aren Vogel after irish dancing his way onto the stage.

On Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m., WJ’s most eligible bachelors danced, strutted and skated their way onto the auditorium stage to be bid on by WJ’s ladies. Dressed in a wide variety of unusual outfits including overalls, a ship captain’s hat, and roller-blades, bachelors made their way onto the stage to cheers of the bidders following senior Aren Vogel’s introductions. The bachelors consisted of 12 seniors, three juniors and one sophomore.

“I was nervous but pulled off my entrance well,” said senior bachelor Kyle Lopez. “It was a ton of fun, very funny.”

The Leadership class hosted this new event, dubbed “WJ’s ‘The Bachelor,'” as part of the month-long fundraising efforts for Pennies for Patients. This new event, joining the ranks of past popular fundraisers like Family Feud and Pong for Pennies for Patients (PPP), will contribute its proceeds to WJ’s total donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. All eligible “bachelors” were encouraged to sign up for the auction so that they could be bid on by WJ’s ladies.

“We asked around and a lot of the guys were willing to sell their bodies for P4P,” said event creator, senior Nicole Marquez. “I saw it on “One Tree Hill” and have wanted to do it ever since.”

Students were charged five dollars at the door and those funds along with all money used to bid on the participants will also go towards Pennies for Patients. Girls lucky enough to win the bidding war were then entitled to a date with the bachelor they won.

“It was a very entertaining event for everyone, especially the ladies,” said Marquez.

The host of the evening, Vogel, agreed that the night was a lot of fun, if a bit nervewracking at times.

“While actually hosting I had a great time,” said Vogel. “I had written out all the intros for the bachelors beforehand so I wasn’t really nervous about screwing that up, but was rather concerned with coming up with funny responses during the bidding and when talking to the bachelors. I tried to keep a light and funny atmosphere and did my best to keep the jokes rolling.”

By the end of the night the bachelors raised $1,126 for the cause and had received a sizable ego boost as well.

“We exceeded our goal by about $800,” said Marquez.

Co-planner Vogel also admitted he was proud of the event’s success.

“I think we did our best to make it entertaining and were able to raise over $1,000 dollars as well,” said Vogel. “It would be awesome if this was an event that grew and became an annual event everyone looked forward to like Glo or PPP.”

Most bachelors sold for between 20 and 60 dollars with a few exception, one being junior class president Peter Caggiano, who was purchased by fellow junior Audrey McMaster for $110. The second highest bid was for senior Alex Crowe who went for $80.  Though the leadership group said they expected senior Max Vanegas to go for the highest price,  Marquez said that another senior, Lopez, was her favorite.

Lopez admitted that senior Harris Cope was his favorite bachelor, and Vogel agreed.

“[Harris] requested the song ‘Push It’ by Salt ‘n Peppa,” said Vogel, “and came out with an American flag bandana, shades and roller blades. He was a natural on stage and definitely cracked up the crowd which relieved some of the pressure off of me. I also enjoyed Willy [Sissoko’s] flexing of his pecs which really got the crowd going.”

When asked how the bachelors came up with their costumes and unique entrances, Vogel said several of the bachelors who are in Leadership class together, had casually discussed ideas beforehand.

“For the rest of the guys we made suggestions to wear something that showed some skin as they were trying to impress the ladies,” Vogel said, “but other than that most of the guys came up with their own apparel and little routines.”

All the lucky girls will be going on their dates at one of WJ’s restaurant nights to further support Pennies for Patients.