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By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – CFCW morning hosts Sharon Mallon and Danny Hooper have been popping up around Morinville this week, or at least a reasonable facsimile of them has. The life size replicas of the popular country station’s morning personalities have been living with Morinville resident Beth Laton since Sunday.
Laton is one of 50 contestants in CFCW’s Live With Danny and Sharon contest – a two-week-long competition that Laton hopes will earn her a spot on the Honky Tonk in Hawaii trip hosted by country singers Brett Kissel and Jackie Ray.
“I was one of fifty that was picked to cart these guys around,” Laton said, noting contestants had to make an online application, outlining why they’d want to live with Danny and Sharon for two weeks. “I said I wanted to live with them because I think it would be more interesting than listening to my husband’s stories over and over.”
But now that Laton is one of 50 contestants living with the cut outs, she can’t merely sit around the house waiting for them to tell her a story or two. She has to get out and about in the community with them.
“I have to take them everywhere I go for two weeks and take as many pictures of different things and different places with them,” Laton said, adding she’s taken the cut outs to the police and fire stations, to local restaurants, grocery shopping and even to her work at Notre Dame Elementary School where they were popular with the students. “They loved them. When I went and put them in the car they were all upset.”
Laton said thus far the strangest place she’s taken the cut outs is Kickin-Ash Buffalo Meat Products in St. Albert to pose with a bison and to Karries Kostumes to pose with costumed employees and props. “There was a great big Liberace there,” Laton said. “So I had the picture with Liberace and Raggedy Ann.”
Thursday afternoon, Danny and Sharon’s replicas had the highest honour the town has to offer. Laton brought the cut outs to Morinville Council Chambers to pose with Mayor Lloyd Bertschi, who put Morinville’s chain of office around the two radio personalities and proclaiming them mayor for a day.
But although Danny and Sharon have been made honourary mayors and made their rounds through Sturgeon County, Laton is not finished in her quest to win the trip to Hawaii. She will be spending the Thanksgiving weekend carting the country cut outs around to some more stops on her photo op tour.
Laton said the 50 contestants will be narrowed down to a pool of five on Oct. 18, with one of those five winning the trip to Hawaii, a place Laton has never been.
“I’d really like to win to go to Hawaii because I’ve never been there,” Laton said. “I’ve been married for 32 years and no honeymoon and six children later. So I’d really enjoy to go to Hawaii and experience what Hawaii is like.”
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