FUND-RAISING CONTEST

For the fifth year in a row, Monterey Park is hosting a fund-raising beauty contest to see which of the city’s biggest hunks can draw in the biggest hunk of change.

The nine candidates competing for the title of Mr. Monterey Park are sponsored by community groups or charities that sell $1 raffle tickets for the contest.

The contestant whose sponsors have sold the most raffle tickets wins the title, “but we all win as a community” because the event helps pay for many charitable and community service programs, said Kurt Aanensen, executive director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. Regardless of who wins, each agency gets a small percentage of their ticket sales to contribute to charity or community service.

The grand prize for Mr. Monterey Park is “riding in one of the parades sponsored by the city,” said contestant Winston J. Williams of West San Gabriel Consortium DBA Career Partners, a job training agency. “It’s supposed to be a fun event.”