Every year at HCP, one week of spring is dedicated to raising money for charity. A large amount of the money raised during Eagle Week comes from the ugly men. Two ugly men, a boy and a girl, from each grade and a handful of teachers are chosen to perform dares for money. This year’s ugly men shared their thoughts on the upcoming week with the Marionette.

Senior Payton Langley is reprising her role as ugly man from her freshman year. She didn’t get very many dares the first time and says she expects many more this year. Her biggest concern is food dares. “I’ll definitely probably throw up,” she said.

Senior Liam Whitbeck was chosen because many people think he’s funny, even though he doesn’t agree. “It was kind of put on me. I didn’t really ask for it,” he said. But he is excited and already has gotten dare suggestions. “One of the dares people are recommending is to pierce both my ears. If I get enough money, a few hundred, I guess I will.”

Junior Jacob Absher is happy to have the opportunity to help others even though Eagle Week can be intimidating. “I’m still kind of nervous because I’m not really prepared for what some of these kids might come up with but I’m happy that I get to do it because I’ve always wanted to be a part of it,” Absher said. He’s willing to do just about any kind of dare. “For the right price, I’ll go for it.”

Junior Kate Williams wasn’t surprised when was chosen. “I knew I wanted to be it so it wasn’t really a big surprise. I’m already in STUCO and I thought going out for ugly man I’d be able to immerse myself in the school activities,” Williams said.

Sophomore Sydney Beam was surprised that she was picked as an ugly man because STUCO members are not usually chosen. “I was so excited because I wanted to do it last year,” Beam said. She is open to almost any dare as long as she doesn’t have to cut her hair.

Sophomore Dymitri Doherty is happy to contribute to charity. “I was scared and happy at the same time because I’ve always wanted to be an ugly man,” Doherty said. He doesn’t like fish, but he says that he would eat it in order to help the cause.

Freshman Cooper Phillips found out through friends and wondered, “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” He has already gotten a few dare suggestions. “One person dared me to buzz cut and eat my hair. I don’t think I’ll do that because that’s just gonna clog up somewhere,” Phillips said. “I’m hoping [being an ugly man] is not too bad but I’m planning for the worst.”

Freshman Maria Hernandez told STUCO officers that she wanted to do “crazy dares” and her classmates knew she had been chosen before she did. She is open to many dares. “I’m expecting to eat nasty things and shave parts of my body that haven’t been shaved before but I’m excited,” she said.

Photography teacher Paige Wilson graduated from HCP so she already knew that new teachers were asked to be ugly men. “I’m very excited to be on the other side of Eagle Week because as a kid I was always wondering what it’s like to be a teacher. I think it’s cool because I was never an ugly student. I got my second chance,” Wilson said.

As a new teacher, freshman and sophomore counselor Shyanne Gatrost was asked by STUCO to be an ugly man. She admits that she has no idea what to expect. “I’ve heard some of the previous dares and some of them are maybe a little crazy, but I’m not scared.”

Physics teacher Clark Ellis already knew what was in store because his wife used to teach at HCP. He was surprised STUCO felt the need to ask him. “I thought I was already ‘voluntold’ more than anything else,” Ellis said. He’s also heard about the many eating dares from past years. “I’m not gonna do that. It would have to be an absurd amount of money. Absurd is not like $100. I’m talking actually absurd.”

AP English Language teacher Natalie Runnels was hesitant about being an ugly man when first asked. “Students don’t know how to come up with dares. All their dares involve licking the floor or eating something disgusting and I’m not gonna do either of those. But cool dares, I’m down for. But I never hear those,” Runnels said. She also felt that teachers don’t make as much money as student ugly men but eventually decided that any opportunity to help was worth it. She hopes that students will come up with creative, sanitary dares. “I’m not gonna lick the floor. That’s disgusting. Anything with a possibility for disease, I have better things to do with my life.”

Latin, German and Philosophy teacher Joshua Higginbotham has been an ugly man at least 7 times in his 11 years at HCP. This means that he’s had lots of memorable dares. “The best [dare] had to have been probably six or seven years ago. Someone printed off their favorite lines of Ron Burgundy from Anchorman. They gave me 15 or 20 bucks. Within the lecture I was giving that day I had to work in every one of the quotes, which was fun. It was also a really clever dare. They had to think about it,” Higginbotham said. Since then, he has become known for cross dressing. In years past, former HCP student James Wood did his makeup.”I hope to [cross dress]. It’s always interesting. James will at least be the guest makeup artist. He told me before he left that I have to go to Sephora to get my ‘C number’ or whatever and send him that.”

The veteran ugly man also has some advice for the new ugly teachers. “Remember you’re actually totally in control. And also you can suggest modifications to make [dares] more interesting or less dumb.”