Annual Mr. Kaneland fundraiser goes with Barbie theme

Sunny Agrawal, a Kaneland senior, was one of seven Ken-testants to compete in the annual Mr. Kaneland, which had a Barbie theme this year and raised almost $5,000 for local charities March 15.

Mr. Kaneland is approaching the $60,000 mark in money raised over the years during the annual event. The money goes to the Delnor Center for Breast Health and Kaneland Cares. Mr. Kaneland also funds two $500 leadership scholarships.

Agrawal didn’t hold back with his costume, looking like he had just walked off the board game Candyland with a multicolored skirt, white shirt covered in candies, red-and-white striped candy cane socks up to his knees and a long bright blue wig to match his dyed blue hair. In other words, he looked a lot like Katy Perry in her music video for “California Gurls,” the song he performed during the talent portion of the program.

Before he took the stage, Maddie Strasser and Bailey Frein, who served as mistresses of ceremony, announced that Agrawal wanted to warn them that “he hopes that he doesn’t hurt your ears.”

“When Mr. Kaneland came up, I didn’t think I would do ‘California Gurls,’ ” Agrawal said. “But some people were like, ‘You should do it. You should do it’ and I thought if people are asking for it, let’s do it.”

Originally, he considered doing Perry’s “Firework.”

“I thought it would be easier with less of the swear words and stuff, but then everyone was like do your favorite song, so I did,” he said. “It took awhile to work through all the censoring and stuff, but I got it done. The main part was when I saw the music video of Katy Perry’s ‘California Gurls’ and wanted to copy the dress so that was kind of the inspiration behind it, I would say.”

A quick trip to a local Michaels arts and craft store to buy a white T-shirt and glue helped him complete his special wardrobe.

“I put in a lot of work,” he said. “I had to get all the glue and all the fake candy and stuff to make the dress look as nice as possible. It took a lot of work getting the hot glue down and making sure it stuck and testing it out because when I put it on, I thought it was going to all rip.”

Agrawal was joined on stage by a pair of dancing sharks throughout his performance as well as Ken-testant Tommy Whitney during Snoop Dogg’s verses.

“It felt really good because I don’t know what I was expecting at first,” Whitney said. “But they saw me coming out while he was saying the Snoop Dogg part and then I walked in and when I said the first note of that part, I heard the crowd rapping along with me and everyone having a good time with it and that felt really good.”

Everyone had good reason to feel amazing for coming together for a night of fun to support the community.

“It feels amazing now, but I was scared. I was nervous,” Agrawal said. “Although I do have to say that everyone else did well. I think we’re all winners, not just me. We’re here raising money and having a great time.”

Night of fun musical entertainment

Whitney, dressed to the nines, opened the talent part of the program by singing Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know.”

Musical numbers were the talent choices of all the Ken-testants except for Adam Walker, who featured Cavetown’s “let them know they’re on your mind” for his painting performance art.

“I just painted what I felt matched the music,” he said. “It was a little bit difficult when I actually went on stage to perform because I couldn’t really hear where the song was in the music, but I was able to hear the part where I planned to put the paint all over the easel. The song itself just naturally lined up with when I practiced what I’d do on stage, so it just worked out that I was able to do it without hearing the music.”

Jimmy Kaphengst played Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” on saxophone, Kyle Hesselfeldt played guitar and covered Post Malone’s “Feeling Whitney” and Nick Collins improvised, switching from the jazz number he had hoped to perform to playing a medley of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” on saxophone.

“I planned on doing a jazz tune but couldn’t get it to work so I went with ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World,’ and it made me once again work on something else,” Collins said. “I always do funk tunes and jazz tunes and high temps and did something that’s slow, calm and relaxing. I had to force myself to do that and it was more difficult than I thought it would be.”

Collins believes to be successful he needs to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and competing in Mr. Kaneland afforded him that opportunity.

“For me, I’m not good with talking with people. That’s like my weak suit,” he said. “I’m good at leadership stuff, but casual conversations I suck at it, so I felt like this would get me out of my comfort zone and into that. Also, I’ve done jazz for the last five years and band and I love it, but doing just me soloing on stage, not even with a band, was terrifying but it made me focus on my tone quality and made me a better instrumentalist. I’ve got a feature coming up next week for band so I think that’s going to improve me for that.”

No doubt about it, Collins had a blast.

“Working with all my friends was awesome,” he said. “In the end, we were seven guys who raised over four grand and I even left some money at home, which will bring the total up another $200 or $300.”

Having participated in choir and theater the past four years at Kaneland, the stage is a home away from home for senior Jackson Guidry. He was accompanied on stage by seniors Tiffany Johnson and Sammy Dunne, who danced by his side as he crooned Michael Buble’s “Sway.”

“My brother was in Mr. Kaneland as a junior and helped someone as a sophomore so I knew I wanted to be in Mr. Kaneland,” Guidry said. “We [Guidry, Johnson and Dunne] were at Corner Grind [in Elburn] and sitting down and thinking of what I could do and it was just fate. We had an idea to do “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce but ended up obviously with ‘Sway.” And then with choreography we made some things up and looked online for inspiration.”

Guidry was glowing afterward.

“The energy is amazing in a theater, in a play or anything,” he said. “It feels like when you tell a funny joke and the audience laughs, you get that reciprocation. This is unnatural in a way, but it’s so fun. Everyone is yelling at you and it’s your friends and they’re excited and having a good time.”

A good time for a great cause.

“I’m super happy we did it, especially because of Kaneland Cares,” Guidry said. “I hope it keeps going and word gets out and more people want to participate because it’s a lot of fun.”