Bush named Mr. MHHS

Contestants in the scholarship event are shown above.

Mountain Home High School's beauty pageant, Mr. MHHS, is many different things. It's bright lights and butterflies, costumes and laughter, competition and adventure. It's a chance at something new, and an opportunity for a scholarship.

After competing in five categories, Josh Bush was named the 2009 Mr. MHHS and received a $300 scholarship. Eli Holland won first runner-up and Gabe Stevens won second runner-up.

"I feel really good inside and crazy. It was really nice to see that all my hard work paid off," said Bush.

Other winners for the night included Spencer Smith, who won the cake auction and showman award, and Eli Holland won the physical fitness and attire and the question and answer award.

Gabe Stevens received the talent and performance award and the evening wear award. Chris Austin was voted Mr. Congeniality by his fellow competitors.

For the past five years the Business Professionals of America (BPA) has been hosting the Mr. MHHS pageant.The competition has five events for which the contenders prepare -- physical fitness and attire, talent and performance, evening wear, the question and answer segments and academics. Each event winner receives a certificate.

This year there were nine contestants -- Kyle Crowden, Carlos Ortega, Keth Galloway, Chris Austin, Gabe Stephens, Spencer Smith, Eli Holland, Mikel Ham and Josh Bush.

During the physical fitness and attire portion, contestants were to decide on what they were going to wear and had to do 30 seconds of push-ups and crunches. The also were allowed 10 seconds to show the audience a prepared fitness performance.

Holland showed off his muscles in the fitness and attire portion by wearing a suit for his apparel of choice and impressing everyone with his ability to open a jar of pickles. Josh Bush showed off his skateboarding skills by first catching the audience's attention with his Mr. Incredible costume and skateboarding across the stage, jumping over objects of different heights.

During the talent and performance segment, Stevens showed the crowd his musical magic by singing a song about why he should be Mr. MHHS and playing the guitar.

The last section of the competition was the question and answer portion. Family was a common answer among competitors. Eli Holland's question asked, "If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?"

Holland answered saying he would absolutely love to have dinner with his grandmother. He said she cooks the best meal and that you've never tasted a real pie until you've tasted hers.

Joshua Bush showed his appreciation for his parents in the answer to his question.

"If you were on a deserted island and were only allowed to have two things, what would they be?" asked Floyd.

Bush proceeded to answer by saying he'd love to have his parents with him because he loves his mom and believes she is absolutely amazing and that he would love having his dad there too. He wished if he had more options he would bring all of his family.

The contestants also showed off cakes during the cake auction. Bush was able to sell his cake to his father for $50.