Whiz Kid - Meet Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham never intended to win.

When he cast his hat into the high school’s annual Mr. Hatboro-Horsham contest – a spoof of beauty pageants – Cunningham, 19, of Horsham, said he “did it mainly as a joke.”

“I just kind of wanted to do it for some laughs and ending up winning,” he said.

Cunningham, along with the other seven senior contestants, helped to raise a combined $2,140, which will be equally divided between the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Red Cross – with a special focus on the people affected by the Mississippi floods.

In the last decade the Mr. Hatboro-Horsham contest has raised more than $10,000, which has been donated to various charitable organizations, Principal Dennis Williams said.

For Cunningham’s role in the competition, he wore a girl’s T-shirt and danced to Enrique Iglesias. In the swimsuit competition, he sported a hula skirt, and for the talent round the black belt showed off his karate prowess.

But, believing brains won out over beauty, Cunningham said the answer he provided to the question “What is Hatters pride and how do you show it” crowned him Mr. Hatboro-Horsham.

“I talked for about two minutes,” Cunningham said. “I believe I ended on the note that I was Hatboro-Horsham.”

When he’s not primping for beauty pageants, the aspiring geologist spends countless hours (about 400 combined this year and last year) building robots as part of . Cunningham serves as co-captain of the joint robotics team with Upper Moreland High School students. The effort, he said, “sucks up a lot of time.”

“It’s an intense program,” he said.

Robotics is certainly a different intensity level than taking to the high school auditorium stage in a hula skirt, all in the name of fun.