Impersonation just runs in the family

YUKON GABE Perkins, with his stash of prizes for winning the Yukon Charlie look-alike contest. He plans to donate one pair snowshoes and a pair of trekking poles as door prizes at the annual Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation Ski-A-Thon, for which he and his wife, Jessie, are coordinators.

Gabe Perkins’ family has a history of playing the role of, or looking like, someone else.

His grandparents, Ernest and Betty Perkins, regularly played Dr. and Mrs. Moses Mason for the Bethel Historical Society.

And 20 years ago, his great uncle won a Homer Simpson look-alike contest.

So when his friend Carol Bourque told him in November there was a look-alike contest he should enter, he had a family tradition to uphold.

Bourque found the contest online. It called for people to enter a “Yukon Charlie” look-alike competition.

Yukon Charlie’s Winter Systems sells outdoor gear, primarily snowshoes. The company logo features a mountain-man type character with a beard.

The winner would receive $500 worth of snowshoe equipment. And the person who recommended the eventual winner would get a free pair of snowshoes.

“Carol said she needed new snowshoes,” said Perkins.

So did Gabe. He had broken his two years earlier.

He had to act quickly, though: it was Nov. 28, and entries, with a photo, were due Dec. 1.

At the time, Gabe’s beard and hair were both short.

But he had a two-year-old photo, taken when he was at Baxter State Park in the winter - where he had broken his snowshoes.

In the logo, Yukon Charlie has a slight smirk. In Gabe’s photo, by chance, he did too.

So he entered the contest via Facebook, dubbing himself “Yukon Gabe” in the photo caption.

The company left it to the contestants and their friends to drum up online votes. One person could vote once a day for the next six weeks.

At the end of that time, the top five vote-getters would become the finalists at a big trade show in Salt Lake City, where people would vote in person to select a winner.

For six weeks Perkins Facebooked and Tweeted friends and acquaintances to vote for him.

“I really chatted it up on Facebook,” he said.

He had a hard-core following locally of about a dozen people who voted for him regularly, he said.

On the company Facebook page, Yukon Charlie’s showed the ranked order of the roughly 20 contestants each day according to votes, but did not show the number of votes.

Gabe consistently appeared in the top three, who shuffled among themselves as the days went by.

By mid-January, “I had the most votes going into Salt Lake City,” he said.

The trade show took place Jan. 21.

“I was gone for the weekend, but I was monitoring it on Facebook,” he said.

Finally, after the show ended at 5 p.m. Utah time, the company posted the results: “We're excited to announce our official winner: Gabe Perkins, aka Yukon Gabe!”

Posted Gabe: “That's me! Thanks, everyone, who put up with 6 weeks of dogged Facebook blasts, thanks to everyone who voted for me, and thanks to Yukon Charlie's for putting together such a cool contest.”

His next task was to choose $500 worth of snowshoe equipment. He chose three pairs of snowshoes, along with hats, gaiters, poles and carrying cases.

As coordinator for the Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation’s Ski-A-Thon, Gabe has special plans for two of the items.

“I’m going to donate the snowshoes and a pair of trekking poles as a door prize,” he said.

Gabe said he was “humbled” to win the contest, and he’s glad he carried on the family tradition.

But, he admits, “I’d rather look like Yukon Charlie than Homer Simpson.”