On April 13, 12 young men will walk across the stage at Sturges Center for the Fine Arts in downtown San Bernardino as part of the Mr. Cardinal City Pageant. By the end of the night, a new Mr. Cardinal City will be crowned, and the contestants’ months-long journey will have resulted in a wealth of experience.
Pageant founder and coordinator Jamie Rios launched Mr. Cardinal as a way to empower participants to develop interpersonal skills and a strong sense of community. Although technically a pageant, Mr. Cardinal’s focus is on academics, social skills, and community service. Mr. Cardinal is also about keeping commitments and learning good time-management skills, both of which are necessary to serve as Mr. Cardinal and also just to be a contestant.
“The contestants perform hours of community service long before they even get on stage,” Rios said. “And they do it while maintaining their grades and attending weekly practice sessions. It’s a big commitment, and it makes me proud of every contestant when I see them come through.”
The 2019-2020 Mr. Cardinal contestants are: Javier Tovar, Marcell Gibson, Eric Morales, Andy Decena, Billy Rice, Ulysses Villalobos, Rafael Roldan, Daniel Macias, Daniel Gaeta, Xavier Palacios, Randy Galvan, and Julian Perez.
To purchase tickets to the April 13 event, contact any Mr. Cardinal contestant or pageant coordinator Jamie Rios at jamie.rios@sbcusd.com or (909) 881-8217. The red carpet event starts at 5 p.m. and the pageant begins at 6 p.m. at Sturges Center for the Fine Arts, 780 North E Street in San Bernardino.