Men dressed up as animals, put on evening gowns and strutted their stuff while competing to raise money for a cause that has teal written all over it.

Dance Marathon’s Mr. Teal Pageant, a male beauty pageant for Dancer Appreciation Week, joins men from different Dance Marathon animal teams to compete in the chance to be crowned Mr. Teal and to win money for their fundraising account.

It was last Wednesday evening when the competition began in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union. A stage was set up in the front of the room with a big sign reading “Mr. Teal Pageant,” and a raffle table stood in the back where registered Dance Marathon participants could put his or her name in to win prizes.

Looking around the room, animal groups such as Team Cow, the men of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, occupied the area.

Charlie Patterson, junior in software engineering and philanthropy chairman for Alpha Tau Omega, said he encourages men in the house to participate for Mr. Teal.

“We all have a passion for helping out the community and when it comes to kids, we raise it to the next level,” Patterson said.

At 7:10 p.m. a wave of teal rushed onto the stage, and the eight men participating in the competition started dancing the moral dance. Laughter filled the ballroom.

Nate Dobbels, MC for the event and sporting a teal duct [corrected from: rape] jacket, announced, to a barrage of cheers, that there would be prizes given out to people in the audience.

There were a number of $25 prizes to go into different audience members’ fundraising accounts and some free McDonald’s ice cream cones given to other lucky winners.

After the prizes, the competition started and Dobbels announced that contestants were judged by creativity and audience appeal. The men were called on stage to present their animal costumes. Whether it was a flamingo, butterfly, dolphin, cow or a turtle, each contestant did a different humorous skit to show off his animal’s personality.

After another series of prize giveaways, there was the interview portion of the competition. The first to answer was Rob Hanson.

“How would you describe the perfect date?” Dobbles asked.

Hanson responded by telling Dobbels about the date when he convinced his friend to attend Iowa State.

“No … a date, like, with a girl,” Dobbels said.

Hanson played it off and responded by saying a perfect date would be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, jogging on the track and a nice champagne glass of chocolate milk afterwards. 

Another set of prize giveaways and then a crowd favorite: the talent competition.

Alec Kremers, freshman in kinesiology and health, also a Team Cow contestant said, “I’m here to have fun, and to meet new guys who aren’t afraid to wear a dress.”

Kremers blew everyone away with his ability to balance a broom on his foot, hand, face and chest.

Covers of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” followed, with another contestant dancing an Irish jig followed by the Bernie.

Finally, out came Hanson, astounding the audience with his talent to juggle glowing balls then some gold bowling pins. First he did a solo act, then his friend came on stage, and they juggled simultaneously and proceeded to take a girl on stage and knock a pen out of her mouth while he and his friend juggled around her.

Hanson, a member of the juggling club, spent about two hours the night prior practicing this routine with his friends.

By the time the talent competition was over, it was 8 p.m. and MC Dobbels was about to announce the top three contestants.

Two Applebee’s gift cards and two $50 prizes to be added to two audience member accounts were about to be announced.

Around 8:05 p.m., the eight men walked proudly on stage in their evening gowns. Kremers was sporting a very flattering gold dress, while Hanson was posing in his long black gown with a slit running up his left leg. Some of the women in the audience looked at him like he was doing better walking in heels than they could.

“I spent about an hour in a store trying to find just the right dress. And I thought the heels would help me win,” Hanson said.

As all of the men were on stage posing in their gowns, Dobbels started announcing the top three.

Third place — Alec Kremers: “If I were to win Mr. Teal, I would cry a little. It would have been a very emotional win,” he had said.

Second place — Joey Carnaroli, the man who Irish jig and did the Bernie all over the stage.

And first — Rob Hanson, who later said, “Winning feels wonderful, it sounded like fun when I signed up. We learned the morale dance about 30 minutes before the show which was a little frantic, but it feels good to win.”

After the top three were announced, the men congratulated each other on stage, and the audience cheered. The top three contestants took pictures in their evening gowns together.

Back stage, Patterson was congratulating Kremers and saying how proud he was of him.

“You have two more years of this ahead of you,” Patterson said to Kremers.

As for Hanson, when asked what the most important thing about Dance Marathon was, he said, “We’re doing it for the kids, but we’re doing it in style. The events are a blast to participate in and the big event itself is a lot of fun.”