On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the Zeta Tau Alpha (ZTA) women’s fraternity hosted its annual Big Man on Campus event.

Big Man on Campus (BMOC) recruited men from the college fraternities to participate in a philanthropic pageant designed to raise money and increase awareness for breast cancer. Located in Henderson 100, the event was met with a large attendance from students.

The audience members were greeted with a dance performance from the competitors who paid homage to music artists like Selena Gomez, Sage the Gemini and Sir Mix-a-Lot.

The competition also included swimwear, talent, and evening wear portions where participants were given the opportunity to prove to the judges just what makes them the Big Man on Campus. The event finished with a question and answer portion that dealt with serious topics pertaining to politics, life aspirations, ice cream flavors and pick-up lines.

Nine participants accepted the challenge to walk up the stage and display their talents and bodies in the name of philanthropy. The pageant members practiced for a full month before the competition.

Kelsie Baumgardner, the director of philanthropy for ZTA, spearheaded BMOC. The masters of ceremonies for the event were ZTA members Shelbi Potts and Alex Hall.

BMOC was part of a series of different philanthropy events by the local ZTA chapter in their month long attempt to benefit their national philanthropy of breast cancer prevention. Other events hosted by ZTA included a taco feed and distributing ribbons at the Washburn “Pink Out” football game.

The event reflected the time and effort put in to make the event run smoothly. “It was really good. I was really proud of all the guys and how much effort they put into it,” said Baumgardner.

Eli Johns of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity beat out the competition winning Big Man on Campus. His talent portion displayed his expert-level ability in goat presentations.

The competition had a secondary award for the person deemed to have the best chest. The pageant participants were asked to pose for a picture of their chest and the winner was determined by popular demand.

ZTA tabled in front of the union the week prior to the event and asked people to donate money to the picture they liked the most. Bryce Korf of the Delta Chi fraternity won the best chest competition.

ZTA has one more event planned for October. They will be hosting a late night breakfast on Thursday after Washburn’s home football game.