Over the past few months, New Trier’s Social Service Board members have been working on a new fundraiser to replace Band-Aid, Social Service Board’s largest fundraising event where local bands play in front of their peers to raise money for selected charities.
Their latest idea is a parody pageant called “Mr. Trevian,” but it was ultimately rejected by the NT administration.
Band-Aid has been slowly losing student interest which is why the Social Service Board is looking for a replacement.
Spiro Bolos, one of the Social Service Board sponsors, said “Band-Aid has been a long standing tradition, but the numbers keep dwindling year after year.”
The decline in student attendance to Band-Aid was one of the key factors in the development of the “Mr. Trevian” idea. “Mr. Trevian” was supposed to be a new, fresh way to raise more money for the chosen charity, seeing as Band-Aid was just not bringing in revenue or a crowd like it used to.
Social Service Board is always looking for new fundraising possibilities, so when the idea was brought up in meetings, the board welcomed the change. The premise was based on the traditional beauty pageant, but with men as the contestants.
Lauren Butler, a junior on the Social Service Board, explained “It would have been an entirely male performed talent show of sorts, like a parody of the classic female beauty pageants. We had events like Question and Answer and outfit competitions.”
Although the members of the Social Service Board were in favor of this idea, Principal Denise Dubravec and Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, Timothy Hayes, voiced their concerns during a meeting, according to sponsor Dan Lawler. Also present were student activities coordinator Stacy Kolack, Bolos, and Lawler.
Lawler explained that when they brought it to the administration, the main concern was that it would be counter-cultural to the New Trier atmosphere. “They told us the rationale was that the culture of our school is to try not to create competition by highlighting winners. For example, we don’t do class rankings or have a valedictorian.”
“It could be taken as offensive or sexist. It wouldn’t have felt organic, like how we want a student event to feel. It would have had to be heavily scripted and could have taken a different turn,” said Kolack.
There were attempts in making “Mr. Trevian” more accessible, such as making it “M. Trev,” so that anyone could participate, according to Bolos.
Even though a few neighboring schools also host events like “Mr. Trevian,” there was still worry that the task would have been too large in such a short amount of time. “Mr. Trevian” would have had to have been entirely run, produced, and scripted by students, unlike Band-Aid, where New Trier hires a company to set up the stage and sound equipment.
Nida Saleem, a junior on the Social Service Board, said that “they [the administration] told us that perhaps a less complex idea might be easier to do, especially since ‘Mr. Trevian’ would have to be really scripted to be sure we wouldn’t offend anyone.”
Shyam Thakkar, one of the three presidents of Social Service Board this year, said that “their reasons were justifiable, and make sense; I just wish we knew that going into it a few months earlier, because it would have helped a lot. Other than that, their reasons make sense.”
Even though the idea was never truly fleshed out and brought to the school at large, some students seem to support the idea, such as junior Bella Miller, “I think that it could have been a really fun time. I would love to have seen the funny outfits the guys would have had to wear, and I bet a lot of people would have gone.”
Moving forward from “Mr. Trevian,” Social Service Board is still brainstorming their next event, with ideas like Dollar Days, a dance for the freshman class, and a dodge ball tournament. The Social Service Board is trying their best to “make an event that people go to year after year, make a kind of legacy,” said Bolos.