As the crowd awaits their arrival onto the stage, Finn Murray ‘23 looks to Teddy Coyne ‘23 and waits among a sea of nerves in the wings for the music to draw him out for his much anticipated performance. After weeks of practice and repetition, Murray’s hard work anxiously boils down to this year’s annual Mr. LT performance.

“[Mr. LT] impacted me a lot more than I ever thought it would,” Murray said. “It has been a great way to connect with others that I would not have normally reached out to.”

The 10th annual Mr. LT male pageant took place on Sept. 21 in the NC Reber Center. Although there were only 10 contestants this year, that did not take away from the entertainment value of the overall performance, Matthew Walsh ‘23 said. Walsh, a returning contestant and the overall winner, danced to a plethora of different impressions throughout the ages for his talent. Founded in fall of 2013, Mr. LT has taken off and provided upperclassmen with an accepting and welcoming environment to express themselves and their talents. 

“I knew most of these guys, but I didn’t think I would connect with them in the way that I did,” Murray said. “This was definitely a great way to do that.”

Along with these positive circumstances, Mr. LT is also one of the largest student council fundraisers of the year, raising roughly $4,000 through contestants’ campaigning alone. This money goes to the Jack Kunkle Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides LT seniors with scholarships to better further their education given they participate in performing arts. 

“I thought [joining Mr. LT] would be a good way to support the scholarship.” Murray said. “It feels really good to know that what I’m doing is going towards a good cause, and that it’s going to help people out a lot who may need it.” 

Kunkle, a former LT student of the class of 2014, as well as the first Mr. LT winner, passed away due to brain cancer months after graduation, Director of Student Activities, Peter Geddeis said. Since 2019, Student Council has donated the proceeds of this performance to the scholarship in his name.

“I knew that this was going to be a fun thing,” Geddeis said. “I anticipated that from the beginning this performance and scholarship was going to be something the school and community would embrace and want to continue supporting for many more years to come.”