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Judges narrowed a list of 175 contestants — who submitted videos of themselves at work — down to 10. Although the the top spot went to a riverkeep from Illinois, the 64-year-old janitor served his township proud. Beaumont, a former shipping clerk, has worked at Robert Fulton School the past six years.
The winner, Chad Pregracke, takes home a $100,000 grand prize and is the subject of a short film by famed documentarian Albert Maysles (rhymes with “hazels“), now in his 80s, who made the breathtaking Rolling Stones’ concert film, “Gimme Shelter,” with his brother, the late David Maysles.
Beaumont’s wife, Cynthia, shot and submitted her husband’s entry. In it, we learned that Beaumont hauls out 56 bags of garbage and close 168 windows for 14 classrooms — “every day,” as the missus constantly reminds us. But that’s just for starters.
“Every classroom there’s these ginormous chalkboards,” she says, as he takes his cue. “He has to erase them all and he has to wash them all.”
Then he has to mop and clean the bathrooms. Every hallway must be mopped, every stair swept. (See: You could elect North Bergen custodian as hardest worker in America)
Summertime has meant moving the desks and chairs, buffing the floors, and putting everything back.
“No air conditioning,” his wife says, narrating the two minutes of footage produced. “It gets to like 110, 120 in here. No air conditioning, no cold water. Nothing at all.
“Every day.”
THE WINNER:
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