Calendar contest finalists announced

The 12 winners of the Men of Laguna Beach calendar contest were announced Wednesday by a panel of judges and Save the Boom. The contest, which ran online and in the Coastline Pilot, garnered nearly half a million votes.

In alphabetical order, the winners are:

Caleb, Chris, Daniel, Gustavo, Joe, Michael, Ray, Russell B., Russell M., Ryan K., Ryan L., and Ryan W.

In about a week the top three winners will be announced and the prize money, including $1000 to the first-place winner, will be announced.

The calendar will be available soon in Laguna Beach and online, said organizer Fred Karger, who conceived of the calendar as a way to publicize and raise money in the effort to save the Boom Boom Room, a gay bar in Laguna Beach for 80 years.

The bar closed on Labor Day.

“The panel of judges has come up with 12 great looking guys, both gay and straight, who will be excellent representatives of Laguna,” Karger said. “They will greatly help in our continuing efforts to save the Boom forever.”

Several factors were considered to help determine the final results: AOL’s QueerSighted.com’s ( www.queersighted.com/laguna) online gallery received more than one million page views, and site visitors have cast more than 231,000 votes. Votes were also cast and collected at the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot.

These two sources, plus feedback and comments, were reviewed by the judges to help decide the outcome, Karger said.

— Cindy Frazier