Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The historic Royal Theater in Hogansville will host this year’s Mr and Miss Callaway High School program on Tuesday night.

The Mr and Miss CHS Program is an annual event organized by the student council at Callaway High School. The event recognizes exceptional senior students who represent clubs or teams from the school with a competition with interviews in a pageant-style presentation.

A trio of judges from the Troup County School System will select a male and female winner from over a dozen seniors representing the Class of 2025. The teens will be judged based on an interview held earlier in the day and their performance during the competition.

“They’re scored on their interview portion. They’re scored on their school involvement and community involvement, and then they’re scored overall on their presentation [Tuesday] night,” said Shelby Goins, CHS Graphic Design Teacher, who has overseen the competition for the last five years.

During the show, the students get introduced and they each have to go one by one and pull a question from a fish bowl and answer a question on stage in front of everyone, Goins said.

“It’s kind of like Miss America Pageant style. It’s something random, but we give them an idea of the type of questions we are going to ask. Then they just have to answer that on the spot to the best of their ability,” Goins said.

This year, there are 16 participants. Goins said they have had upwards of 24 students vying in the competition in previous years.

“[The number of competitors] really just depends on the senior class and who’s involved,” she said.

Tickets for the event will be sold at the door for $5 for general admission and $1 for CHS students and staff. 

Proceeds from the event go to the Callaway High School Student Council, which provides a scholarship for the overall winners.

Goins explained that the scholarships are for whatever the winners do after they graduate, whether they enter college, the military or enter the workforce.

“The money given to them is for whatever they plan to do after they graduate. Because obviously we have some that compete, that don’t plan to go to college,” Goins said. “We just tell them they can apply it to their plans after high school.”

This is the first year that the competition will be held at the Royal Theater, due to the school’s lack of an auditorium.

“At Callaway High School, we don’t have an auditorium, so we’ve been creative in the past. We’ve used the small gym stage. We’ve used the Hogansville Elementary stage,” Goins said.  “Like our musical that took place at the Royal Theater this past weekend, our chorus shows, our band shows, so basically, Callaway is utilizing the Royal Theater now as our auditorium.”

Goins was thankful for the opportunity to host the event at the Royal Theater.

“The Troup County School System has helped us secure that space because we are the only high school in the county that does not have an auditorium or a theater,” Goins said.

This year’s competitors are Bryceton Sanders, Kavius Leonard, Jaxon Duncan, Lason Blackmon, Keshawn Bridges, Tyon Beasley, Jaidyn McFarlin, Kaleah Willis, Rakyla Favors, MaKayla Woodard, Ashlyn Sams, Maggie Day, Bianka Sola, Christiauna Toolsie, Karlie Walker, Kaitlyn Williams and Beneatrice Clark.

The Mr and Miss Callaway High School competition will be held at the Royal Theater at 400 E Main Street in Hogansville on April 22 at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Shelby Goins at goinssr@troup.org.