Freshman James Maa is enjoying his unexpected second-place finish at Saturday night’s Mr. Key Club Pageant fundraiser held in the Haymarket Theater.

“I think it [my finish] is better than I expected,” Maa said. “I was told that, since I was the only freshman, I wouldn’t place at all. I think it’s a great achievement.”

Key Club members from Los Altos High School, Fremont High School, Homestead High School, Monta Vista High School, Paly, Mountain View High School, Cupertino High School and Gunn High School participated in a series of competitions to determine who would become Mr. Key Club of 2009.

Various Paly Key Club members emceed the event.

Competitions in the pageant included swimsuit modeling, Key Club spirit-wear modeling, a talent competition and formal attire modeling. In each modeling competition, contestants walked on stage with the specified attire. Afterwards, all participants, in their costumes, were called back on stage to compete in small competitions like a hula hoop contest, trivia contest and group skit.

Competitors performed a variety of different shows in the talent competition. Representatives from Los Altos, Homestead, Mountain View and Cupertino performed musical talents. Fremont, Gunn and Monta Vista participants broke wooden boards, told stories and danced respectively while Paly Key Club representative freshman James Maa preformed a freestyle soccer act.

Junior Paly Key Club President Erika Ji was impressed with the creativity of the contestants.

“I really enjoyed the variety and skill that the contestants had,” Ji said. “All of them came up with unique things. They’re all very talented.”

After the initial competitions, the final four contestants proceeded to a question-and-answer session to determine the winner of the entire pageant. Junior Paly Key Club members Christina Lee and Hillary Yuan asked each contestant two questions: a Key-Club-related question and a personal question.

Afterwards, the contestants took turns asking each other both Key-Club-related and personal questions. Maa asked Homestead’s Daniel Liu, “What is your favorite article of clothing?” Cupertino’s Justin Li compared Key Club to a garbage can in response to another contestant’s question.

Maa thought that the question-and-answer session was the highlight of the pageant.

“I liked the questions and answers,” Maa said. “There were really creative questions and people had really creative answers.”

Maa came in second place to Liu. Li was named the pageant’s Mr. Congeniality.

The proceeds from the pageant will go to Grassroot Soccer, an educational group that uses soccer to combat HIV and AIDS in Africa, according to the Grassroot Soccer Web site. According to Ji, Key Club raised about $500 from Saturday’s pageant.

Overall, Ji is satisfied with the outcome of the pageant.

“As always, there’s some issues,” Ji said. “There are no trial runs. It’s just a one-time thing. All and all, it went pretty well. It could have been worse.”

Although he was nervous about competing in the pageant at first, Maa still has learned some lessons from it.

“It [the pageant] mostly teaches me that it’s okay to be nervous,” Maa said. “Sometimes it’s about having fun. I thought it would be more competitive. It actually was really good. What happened back there [backstage] was a great bonding experience.”

Paly Key Club’s next event will be a spring blood drive which will be held on Friday, March 6.