Although the fight for the prestigious title of “Mr. Kinnelon” has been a tradition for years, the 2024 pageant will not be taking place. For any KHS students who did not have the opportunity to experience Mr. Kinnelon, here is everything you need to know about the event and why they are discontinuing it.
Mr. Kinnelon is a talent show/beauty pageant mix held at the end of the year for seniors. However, due to COVID and a lack of volunteers, the event has struggled with participation in the past couple of years. To combat this, the event leaders let in KHS juniors last year, and this year, are now completely discontinuing the event.
“They all show off special ‘talents’ and videos to represent their campaign to show why they represent Kinnelon,” said senior Bryan Lawson. Although Lawson has not participated in the event, he has attended in past years. “It’s a fun event which makes a lot of people laugh, and if the money goes to a charitable cause, it’s the best of both worlds.”
Although the discontinuation of Mr. Kinnelon has come as a surprise to many, “My best guess is the lack of interest that is kind of plaguing the school across the board right now, especially … (since) the year is almost over,” said senior and former pageant participant Nathan Shurts. According to Shurts, the form to register was sent out a couple of months ago. However, it didn’t receive many responses, “…so they let it fall through”.
Lack of participation is not a new issue happening to school-held events. At the last pep rally in February, administrators made an effort to hold a student-teacher duo dance battle. Although they were initially looking to have around 10 student-teacher duos, they only received one duo willing to participate in the event.
“Recently, friends of mine started a club and most people that showed interest in it said ‘oh my god it’s going to be so good for my application’. Nobody actually cared about the activity. ” – Aarushi Kumar
“…most people in my class are really just focused on building their [college] applications, so no one really wants to do anything for fun anymore,” said junior Aarushi Kumar. Kumar also mentioned the mounting pressure of college admissions, and how students have started to care less about having fun and more about what looks impressive on their application. “…that’s why I think a lot of events don’t really peak the interest of students anymore.”
There are obvious exceptions to this general trend, one of the most prominent being Spirit Week, but it seems that other school events are completely overlooked. With the decline of student interest in school events, this has greatly affected annual traditions like the Mr. Kinnelon Pageant. If lack of participation continues to persist, the school board might have to cut down on more events – or even worse, completely halt these memorable high school experiences.
