Calvin Langille is legendary to his family.
Now they want to make it official.
The 33-year-old Barrie man is in the running for the Legendary Dad Bod, a contest in association with Men’s Journal magazine aiming to raise money for the American cancer research organization B+ Foundation, which provides financial assistance to families with children battling cancer in the United States.
Langille moved to Barrie with Ashley Shannahan 10 years ago from the Alliston-Beeton area when she was studying political science and history at Laurentian University. They’ve settled in the city's east end where they’re now raising five-year-old Hudson and two-year-old Hayden.
Calvin is a carpenter working in the residential framing business, recently launching his own business, Langillewood Homes.
He spotted the contest ad in August and signed up, thinking it might be a fun thing to do.
In September, he was selected as a finalist and had three weeks to prepare before voting opened.
Ashley, who has been staying home with the kids, charged right in, focusing on social media. Soon, the whole family became involved.
She’s regularly setting up photos with Calvin and the kids, pushing the campaign along.
“We took them out to the park and we put together some photos,” she tells BarrieToday. “I learned how to make Tik Toks, which was an interesting endeavour. For the kids, it’s just playing around with dad, so they just enjoy it.”
The goal is to encourage people to vote daily, which is free, but those who contribute money to the cancer organization get additional votes.
Calvin made it through a succession of cuts and has moved onto a quarterfinal group and has been sitting at the top. But 480 people remain in the competition, so voting in the next couple of days is crucial.
“I did it as a fun kind of joke and it does take me out of my comfort zone a bit and does put me in the spotlight,” he says. “It’s just kind of awesome how it’s just opened us up. And we’re having a lot of fun doing these content-creating photo shoots.
"We’re having fun together and the kids are having fun doing it.”
Semifinal voting begins on Thursday with the selected contestants and voting for the final round starts on Nov. 4, leading up to the announcement of the winner on Nov. 11.
Calvin and Ashley say they plan to ramp up their social-media game with some more posts, photos, videos, and live posts. They are working on some challenges that might muster up some more support.
The top prize of $25,000 would come in handy, but Calvin says he isn’t quite sure what he’d include in the two-page advertorial in the Men’s Journal that comes with it.
“Hopefully it will just be business-related stuff. I have been a carpenter for most of my adult life,” he says. “I’m not physical in the gym every day; it’s just that I have a physical job, so I guess we’ll just talk about healthy eating.”
Although his business is relatively new and he has a comfortable relationship with a contractor, he would eventually like to get into custom building and any promotion wouldn’t hurt.
The campaign has helped to expose his inner extrovert and pushed him a little out of his comfort zone, Ashley says. And they figure increasing his profile wouldn’t hurt, since he would definitely be open to acting or other opportunities.
They say they’ve already been approached via Instagram to promote products, which was something they didn’t expect.
To vote, click here.
