Adia Huss-Solomon, 17, and Dino Morelli, 15, got off to a good start in the Miss and Mr. Fun in the Sun pageant by taking top honours in the talent portion Sunday night.
Huss-Solomon wowed the judges with her guitar and vocal rendition of “You’re Still the One” by Shania Twain while Morelli strutted his stuff in a choreographed dance routine to “Staying Alive.”
“I was hoping [to win] because that was the entire reason for me entering [the pageant],” Huss-Solomon said, noting she loved the chance to perform on stage.
In addition to their solo acts, the nine contestants also participated in a fashion show, an opening number done to a “Grease” medley, plus a speech to the audience to describe their personality.
Pageant co-ordinator Laurie Beadle said she was quite pleased with how the contestants did during the talent night, noting it tends to be the most formal part of the pageant.
“They were all very nervous and quite relieved to have that portion over,” Beadle said. “I think they did very well.”
Even though Sunday night’s event was one of the bigger parts of the competition, accounting for 25 percent of the final mark, Beadle stressed people shouldn’t declare any winners just yet.
“They’ve got about half [of the pageant] left,” she said, noting judges have tabulated about 45 percent of the contestants’ final marks so far.
“Just because they win the talent night and maybe the parade doesn’t mean they won the pageant,” Beadle said. “We really, really stressed that to the kids.”
The crownings will take place late tomorrow afternoon at Pither’s Point Park.
For her part, Huss-Solomon is looking forward to completing the rest of the competition, especially the float portion during the Canada Day parade tomorrow.
While she admitted it would be nice to be crowned Miss Fun in the Sun 1998, she said her main goal was to have fun, adding many of the other contestants seem to be doing the same thing.
“Everybody’s been getting along really great,” she remarked. “Everybody truly wishes each other the best.”
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