By Clayton Park

In mid-August, my wife Susan got a phone call from Cookie Higman, our friend who at the time was a personal fitness trainer at Body Power Gym in Northgate. ³I want to be on STAR-vivor,² she said.

³What is that?² Susan asked. ³Donıt you mean ŒSurvivorı?² referring to this summerıs hit CBS TV series.

No, Higman informed her, she wanted to apply to take part in STAR-vivor, a contest being put on by local radio station STAR 101.5 FM.

Like a combination of ³Survivor² and CBSıs other reality show ³Big Brother² with a Northwest twist, STAR-vivor called for six men and six women who were willing to live for 17 days in a glass house at the Puyallup Fair, during which time they would not be allowed to eat anything but fair food (think scones and corn dogs), and asked to compete against each other in various immunity and amenity challenges such as seeing who can milk a goat fastest, and playing ³Street Apple Bingo.²

Each weekday morning, the contestants would be asked to take a private vote to decide which person they believe should be banished from the house. The radio stationıs listeners would then take over the voting by casting ballots via the Internet, once the number of contestants got down to the final four.

The last contestant remaining would win the grand prize: $10,000 in cash and a set of furniture from IKEA.

While Higman was no stranger to contests ‹ over the years, she had won numerous body building contests ‹ she wanted Susanıs help in filling out the application.

³I really want to do this,² she told Susan. ³I KNOW I can do this.²

Susan agreed, but offered Higman a few words of advice: Remember to just be yourself.

Higman made it past the initial round, beating nearly 800 candidates to be selected as one of 36 semi-finalists who got to appear on KOMO TVıs ³Northwest Afternoon² show on Sept. 5 where, before a live audience, they were asked to respond to questions from a panel of judges and given 30-seconds to describe themselves and explain how they were planning to put their lives on hold to compete in STAR-vivor.

Sure enough, Higman was chosen to be one of the lucky 12 ‹ that is if you call it lucky to be cooped up in a house with 11 strangers, with no TV, radio, or reading material to help pass the time, and a menu that consists solely of fair food (scones, corn dogs, etc.). Whatıs more, the contestants would have to compete in daily immunity or amenity challenges (amenities as in winning the right to take a shower), such as a contest to see who can milk a goat the fastest. Selected to be Higmanıs STAR-vivor housemates were Adam Michelman, a 21-year-old UW student; Sean Hansen, a 28-year-old Boeing worker from Renton; Richard Struxness, a 34-year-old Navy submariner from Silverdale; Scott Sparling, a 27-year-old magician from Federal Way; John Stewart, a 62-year-old retired Boeing worker from Shoreline; Kathy Elofson, a 61-year-old retired dental office manager from McCleary; Amy Dutt, a 27-year-old family support specialist from Kirkland; Kendra Sargent, a 37-year-old occupational therapist from Tacoma; Heather Kissel, a 26-year-old molecular biologist from Bellevue; Amber Lewis, a 23-year-old assistant to housekeeping manager from Federal Way; and Jim Severn, a 31-year-old radio DJ with STAR 101.5 FM.

The STAR-vivor contestants began their odyssey on Friday, Sept. 8. The Jet City Maven staff (OK, me, my wife Susan and her mom Sue, who was visiting from North Carolina) trekked down to the Puyallup Fair on Monday, Sept. 11, to check in on our North End contingent (Higman, Michelman and Stewart).

We arrived in time to witness an immunity challenge called ³Road Apple Bingo,² in which each contestant is assigned a numbered square on the concrete floor of the carport next to the STAR-vivor house. A horse is fed hay thatıs scattered on the carport floor over the squares and the contestants must watch and wait to see where the horse decides to ... do its business. After an agonizingly long wait, the horse finally selected square No. 2, which belonged to Struxness, which meant he won immunity from being selected for banishment in the next dayıs vote. Earlier that day, the STAR-vivor contestants bid farewell to the first person to be banished: Dutt, who received the most votes because the other contestants viewed her as a strong competitor who stood the best chance of winning.

For many of the STAR-vivors, the act of voting someone out came as a shock after spending their first weekend getting to know one another and forming bonds.

Still, it was a scene that would be repeated every weekday until the winner remained. Despite the briefly emotional scene when Dutt came by to bid everyone farewell, for the most part, the contestants all seemed to be in good spirits.

Higman divulged her ³strategy² for winning: ³Iım going to work everybody out and get everybody nice and sore and exhausted,² she said with a laugh, adding more seriously that she had begun leading her fellow contestants in daily physical workouts, doing push-ups, sit-ups, etc., as a way of passing the time.

She said other activities that the STAR-vivors participated in included impromptu games of ³baseball² (using a nerf ball and a wooden slat from one of the bunkbeds as a ³bat²), group sing-alongs, and swapping stories such as describing the most embarrassing thing theyıve ever done.

Michelman, a communications major at the UW who hopes to someday work in radio, said being a contestant was like taking an ³extended vacation in-between jobs,² adding that he quit his job waiting tables at the Ram Bighorn Brewery at University Village to participate in STAR-vivor. When asked what his strategy was, he replied: ³I donıt really have a game plan. Iım just trying to fly low. People gun for the leaders.²

Higman and Michelman both said they hadnıt really paid much attention to CBSıs ³Survivor² before applying to become a STAR-vivor.

Stewart, on the other hand, was an avid fan of the show, having only missed one episode. He decided to apply to be a STAR-vivor at the urging of his girlfriend. ³Itıs been the most fun Iıve ever had in my life,² he said, which is something considering the fact that he lists skydiving and bungee jumping among his favorite activities. When asked if there are any alliances forming among the STAR-vivors, like some of the contestants on ³Survivor² formed, Stewart responded: ³Sure there is, but I donıt have a clue as to whoıs aligned with who and some have already changed.²

When asked if he had a strategy, he said ³Yeah, I had some but itıs all down the tube as far as Iım concerned because the gal that got voted out today, I didnıt think that was going to happen!²

POSTSCRIPT: On Monday, Sept. 25, Scott Sparling was declared the winner of STAR-vivor, beating out second-place contestant Richard Struxness in a vote cast via the Internet by STAR 101.5 FM listeners. How did our North End contingent end up? Michelman took 7th place, quitting on Sept. 15 after failing to win that dayıs immunity challenge: seeing who could raise the most donations in a single day to benefit the Starlight Childrenıs Foundation. He quit because the contest was won by Higman, who raised $1,962.31, easily surpassing the second-highest total of $956.13 raised by Hansen. Since the other remaining contestants had formed an alliance, with the exceptions being Higman and Michelman, he figured he would get banished if he stuck it out until Mondayıs vote.

Higman, who had won an amazing string of immunity challenges, including one where she held her hand without moving it on a car for nine hours straight, looked like she had a chance to outwit the alliance by getting to the final four, where votes would then be cast, not by the contestants, but by the radio stationıs audience.

However, when the online votes were cast, she wound up getting voted out anyway, by a 12-vote margin, to finish in fourth place.

Stewart was next, finishing in third place.

Despite getting voted out, Higman said afterwards: ³I donıt think I could have had a better experience in my life! My lifeıs completely changed,² noting that one of the unexpected pluses of having participated in the STAR-vivor contest was seeing her family come together to offer her support. ³My family came and gave me a thousand dollars for the charity drive,ı she said, adding that two of her personal training clients, the owners of Treetop Toys, also donated $500 to the fund drive.

Higman, in turn, donated her IKEA bed from the STAR-vivor house to one of her friends, a hairdresser who was in need of furniture.

While she wasnıt too happy with how some of the contestants played the game, particularly towards the end, she said she believed maintaining her integrity was more important than winning a contest, no matter how big the prize. ³I went in with honesty and I left with honesty,² she said. Still, she came away winning in other ways. She made a number of friends, with whom she plans to keep in touch. She also apparently gained a number of fans. ³I got so much e-mail afterwards (from radio station listeners) it was unreal,² she said. ³Even the guy who runs the Puyallup Fair came out and shook my hand.²

Cookie Higman now conducts personal training at North Seattle Gym. She can be reached at 425-424-2029.