On Wednesday, senior David Dwight was crowned the champion of the 10th annual Mr. Wash. U. show that raised a total $27,080.95 for City Faces.

Megan Magray | Student Life

Mr. Wash. U. participants and candidates reveal the fundraising total at the end of the show. The amount marked an increase from last year’s total, which was around $21,000.

The panel of judges consisted of four-year advisor Risa Zwerling, senior and former Student Union president Emma Tyler, and Associate Director of Residential Life Shruti Desai, among others. The candidates acted, danced and performed to the crowd of people in Edison Theater to compete for the title of Mr. Wash. U. Last year, Mr. Wash. U. raised around $21,000 at show time due to a fewer candidates while the year before the program had raised over $35,000 by the time of the show.

Candidates and audience members both said they appreciated the impact that the show had on City Faces. Mr. Wash. U. organizers plan to continue fundraising through the end of the year to reach their goal of $40,000.

Before the first intermission, Associate Professor of Architecture and City Faces founder Bob Hansman took the stage with children in the City Faces program. He dedicated the night’s show to Angelica Wysinger, the victim of a shooting in downtown St. Louis on Monday, March 30. Several of Wysinger’s family members and friends have been in the City Faces program, and she was a close friend of the organization, according to Hansman.

Each of the 14 candidates performed in a talent portion in order to win a high score from the judges. In her segment, junior Karisa Tavassoli performed an original slam poetry piece with guest sophomore Jordan Victorian discussing the intersections of race and sexuality in America.

“It’s about policy brutality, more specifically, fears of losing a loved one due to policy brutality,” Tavassoli said. “It also discussed the intersection of race and queerness, the erasure of queer people of color and the isolation of being a person of color at a predominately white institution.”

Junior Seamus Finnegan danced to a mash-up of ’70s disco classics, and senior Rachel Catanese showed a photo montage of University students tutoring and playing with the children of City Faces over the past school year.

“My little photo series ended up having so much more depth than I could have ever imagined,” Catanese said as pictures of young, smiling faces flashed behind her. “The images you see here on this screen, while beautiful themselves, simply cannot be looked at only on the surface level. To understand this series, one must understand the spirit, the energy and, of course, the constant shenanigans that makes City Faces so incredibly unique.”

Champion David Dwight distinctly remembers coming to the show his freshman year with several of his floor mates. Although he is already involved in performing arts himself, he was inspired to compete in the show by the message of founder Bob Hansman.

“Bob Hansman is someone who really lives the idea of community service as really being a part of the community—not just something to serve other people but really taking part in community growth,” Dwight said. “I’ve had the opportunity to hear Bob Hansman talk a few times and every time, it’s just been really inspiring. You can always hear it in his voice, how much he cares about this community, he’s a part of and works with every day.”

Dwight also said that he strongly valued the new relationships he formed with his fellow candidates and was glad they were come together to help City Faces’ goal.

Megan Magray | Student Life

“We definitely had the opportunity to get close to each other and unite around the idea of raising all this money for the work that Bob [Hansman] does in the community,” Dwight said.

Seniors and co-presidents of Mr. Wash. U. Christian Gordon and Diane-Jo Bart-Plange have been involved in the competition all four years of their University careers. They believe the candidates of Mr. Wash. U., who worked with the children in City Faces at least once a month, were able to live the program’s belief of self-improvement through the talent and creativity they brought to the show self-expression.

“I think one part is all the talent and creativity that goes into it,” Gordon said. “City Faces being this mentoring and tutoring program through the vehicle of art, is one way we embody it on stage.

Going into the year, the two set the deliberately high fundraising goal of $40,000 in order to push candidates to raise as much money as possible. Even though they are over $10,000 away, the program will continue raising money until the end of the school year in the hopes of reaching its goal.”

“It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that we could get $40,000 before the year is over,” Gordon added. “We set that really high goal knowing that it would be difficult to get to, but we strive for it.”

Mr. Wash. U. raised an additional $3,000 after last year’s show, raising the year’s final total to around $24,000. Currently, the program is waiting to hear if they will receive a $10,000 grant from a student involvement committee at Brandeis University, which they will split between this year’s fundraising total and next year’s programming budget.

Freshman Daniela Jimenez came to the show to support her floormate, freshman Spencer Williams, who performed stand-up comedy for his talent.

“It was really sweet to see [the children on stage]. It puts a face behind the program and keeps with the program’s name.”