Greg Guidone Brings the Title of “Mr. Bloomsburg” Home to the Mass Communications Department

The contestants of Mr. Bloomsburg 2014

 

The fifth annual Mr. Bloomsburg pageant was held on April 1st at 7 pm in the Kehr Union Building Ballroom. Five contestants competed in categories of swimwear, talent, formal wear, and Question & Answer.  Senior, Mass Communication student, Greg Guidone won the title of Mr. Bloomsburg 2014 in his first pageant.

Preparation

Bloomsburg’s National Broadcasting Society and  Public Relations Student Society of America have been hard at work on the pageant since December.  Planning and executing an event of this caliber takes a lot of time and work.  Executive board members of both clubs held mutual meetings and then relayed information on to their individual members.  NBS was in charge of providing promotional videos, hosts for the pageant, interviews of the contestants, and broadcasting on the day of the event.  PRSSA focused on the promotional and developmental aspects of putting together the Mr. Bloomsburg pageant.  PRSSA members wrote up letters asking for donations of prizes and food for contestants, along with scheduling events, and providing decor.  Both PRSSA and NBS worked to recruit males to compete for the title of Mr. Bloomsburg.    Applications for the event were due before spring break and both clubs anticipated a great year with nine contestants.  As time went on, a few contestants caught butterflies and began dropping out.  Just a week away from the pageant and the event was left with just five contestants.

Week Of The Event

Leading up to the event, there were still tons of things that needed to be done before Mr. Bloomsburg could be a success.  Junior, Mass Communications student, Frankie Stokes choreographed an opening number for the contestants.  With just a few days until the pageant, the guys met with Stokes and began to learn their dance to “Talk Dirty to Me” by Jason Derulo.  By this time, the hesitant contestants began to break out of their shells and began to feel more comfortable about the whole event.  This was a real turning point and it eased the nerves of PRSSA Vice-President, Jenna Smith, who up to this point was skeptical about the number of contestants who would actually participate.

Contestants practice to “Talk Dirty to Me” led by Frankie Stokes

As the week went on, NBS President, Drew DeMarcantonio delegated NBS members to create a promotional video, organize a CD with all the necessary music and edit the contestants’ interviews. PRSSA members secured prizes and were in charge of picking up the decorations and food donations.

PRSSA Vice-President, Jenna Smith, decorates Mr. Bloomsburg’s sash

Mr. Bloomsburg Pageant

After months of hard work, the day of the event was finally here.  Contestants had been practicing their talents for a few weeks and were anxious to practice on the stage before their BIG moment. NBS members, Jimmy DeRosa and Audra Briggs were the hosts of Mr. Bloomsburg 2014 and did a fantastic job talking to the contestants, judges, and involving the audience members.  The first part of the night was the contestants’ opening number. It was a huge crowd pleaser.  The contestants even came up with their “Risky Business” costumes and everyone seemed to love it.

 

After the opening number, the first category was swimwear.  The guys got really creative with their outfits.  Brock Snider donned a wet suit with a Hawaiian shirt underneath, Lucas Wade showed everything he had in a speedo, and Greg Guidone sported some flippers while on stage.  After swimwear, the contestants were able to show of their best talents they had to offer. Tim Crossett, a political science major, wowed the ladies with his brains as he solved a rubix cube in under three minutes.  Brock Snider performed a rendition of The Catalina Wine Mixer from Step Brothers.  Lucas Wade serenaded the audience with his singing.  Zach Taylor showed off his dance moves to the classic song, “Ice Ice Baby”.   And last but not least, Greg Guidone brought some classiness to the stage with his performance of “Fly Me To The Moon” by Frank Sinatra.  Mr. Bloomsburg 2014, Greg Guidone says it was his favorite part. “I was nervous at first, but at the same time I always love a challenge. Once I got into the song, I began to really enjoy what was going on.”

 

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After the talent portion, audience members were able to take a ten minute intermission and vote for Mr. Congeniality.  During this time, there was also a new addition to the show.  PRSSA and NBS wanted to integrate the use of social media into Mr. Bloomsburg to allow audience members to get involved.  During intermission, Briggs and DeRosa asked audience members to send in questions to be used during the Question and Answer portion of the show by using #MrBloom on Twitter.

Audience members participated in Mr. Bloomsburg by using #MrBloom

The audience voted for Mr. Congeniality by dropping spare change into the buckets behind their pictures

After intermission, it was time for the contestants to show off their best formal wear.  Some donned three piece suits, some with bow ties, some with vests, but one thing is for sure…they all looked GREAT.  After they all exited the stage, it was time for the Question and Answer portion.  Tim Crossett was asked “If you were a girl for a day, what would you do with your 24 hours?” Crossett answered, “I would go on a date with Mr. Bloomsburg 2014, Timothy Crossett and then work on world peace.”  The Question and Answer category always allows contestants to show off their personality and wit.  It also allows them to interact with and win over the judges. After all the categories were complete, it was time to announce who would be Mr. Bloomsburg 2014.  But first, winners of Mr. Congeniality and 1st Runner Up were announced.  Mr. Congeniality 2014 was Kappa Sigma representative, Zach Taylor and 1st Runner Up was Kappa Delta Rho representative, Brock Snider.  All the contestants were great sports and did a fantastic job, but there could only be one Mr. Bloomsburg 2014.  From the beginning, some could tell that Guidone had won over the hearts of the judges with his singing of Sinatra and clinched it with his witty answer to his question of, “If you were a fruit, which would you be and why?” but it wasn’t final until DeRosa and Briggs announced his name. Guidone wore his sash and proudly took the title of Mr. Bloomsburg 2014.  He said, “It feels awesome! I have represented BU at other events, but to be called Mr. Bloomsburg is truly an honor”.

 

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Guidone said, “I really had a great experience during the pageant. I’ve never done something like this before so I didn’t really know what to expect. When the competition was over I looked back on it and realized what a great time I had participating. ” Congratulations to Greg Guidone for winning the title of Mr. Bloomsburg 2014 and thank you to all the contestants for providing a wonderful night of entertainment.

Smith, DeMarcantonio and their teams of students did a great job of putting together another successful event. Smith says, “These events are very complex and there are lots of details that go in to making it work. Delegating tasks to individuals and getting those tasks completed is crucial to an event like this. And of course, the cooperation of the contestants and their willingness to put themselves out there make the whole thing possible.”

By: Rebekah King
You can find out more about Rebekah here.

A new app for BU students!

As my readers can probably tell, the majority of my blog has been about social media and how it helps to spread news and make our lives easier.  Social media is all about evolving new technologies and keeping users updated. My idea for a new app helps students at Bloomsburg University on a daily basis.

My idea for a new application for cell phone users at Bloomsburg University is a “shuttle tracker”.  This app will allow students to view a map of the shuttle loop.  The app will have a constant feed of where the shuttle is at any given time.  This app will be available for all loops including, downtown, Honeysuckle Apartments, Lions Gate Apartments and upper campus loops.  In order for this application to be possible, the shuttle buses must have locators installed somewhere on the bus, preferably on the roof.  This way it would be easier for a satellite to have an accurate location of the shuttle.  On the home screen, users would be able to choose which shuttle loop they are interested in looking at whether it be downtown, Honeysuckle, Lions Gate or upper campus.  Then the next screen will be an animated photo of the loop with a moving shuttle.

This app would be very helpful for students because I know personally it can be quite annoying when you go to the shuttle stop and don’t know if it just left and would be faster to walk or if it will be there in 30 seconds.  This would also be really helpful to let students know if they missed the bus to campus and should probably start booking it to class.  During the cold weather, it would also allow students to wait inside longer and monitor the shuttle’s location via the app.   I know the university says that busses depart from McCormick every half hour but this is not accurate.  As the day goes on, the shuttle departure times become skewed leaving many students waiting for long periods of time.  I think the university should create an app like this to help their students.

This will be the first screen of the app

This is an example screen of the upper campus shuttle loop with shuttle tracker

Citizen Journalism through Social Media

Spectators watch as the historic building, the Moose Exchange is up in flames
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This afternoon on the 200 block of West Main Street in Bloomsburg, the historic building, known as the Moose Exchange had caught fire. I first found out when I was on campus checking my Twitter feed on my iPhone between classes.  I found out within the first hour of the fire because of what is called citizen journalism. According to dictionary.com, Citizen Journalism is defined as “the involvement of non-professionals in reporting news, especially in blogs and other websites.”  In the case of the Moose Exchange, citizen journalism was found via Twitter.

Anybody can be a journalist with the snap of a photo, a tweet, video, or a post on their blog.  We live in a decade full of the Internet, smartphones, and general technology so it has become the mainstream way to report and receive news.   There are many different opinions on citizen journalism, although at this point in time, it cannot be stopped.  One opinion is that citizen journalism is a tool that can effectively be used to report news quicker than the media.  It also allows the public to become more active in the events that surround and concern them every day.  Allowing regular people to report news, opens up the possibility of many new opinions, perspectives, and views that may not be covered by the mainstream media.  Although many agree that citizen journalism is a great thing, others contradict this belief.  Some argue that citizen journalists do not have the “proper” training, including fact checks, impartiality, and ethics, to be a reporter.  Another argument that comes up frequently is that the use of citizen journalism takes away the importance of the media.Whatever side you take on this discussion, you must agree that citizen journalism is making an impact on our society and our media.