Stepping out for kids
Dance competition raises $185,000 to battle form of childhood cancer
People will pay big money to see their friends and others perform on a dance floor in a competitive setting. Proof: the Children’s Tumor Foundation’s 10th annual Dancing With Our Stars, held Sept. 7 at the Little Rock Marriott ballroom.
The star-studded affair drew about 430 people and raised about $185,000 to drive research, expand knowledge and advance care for children with neurofibromatosis, or NF, which causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body. The amount raised locally for the cause over the last 10 years has now topped $1 million.
The “Red Carpet for Research” began with a reception outside the ballroom, followed by a welcome from masters of ceremonies and Dancing With Our Stars alumni Melissa Thoma and Daniel Robinson. Robinson took a few liberties with his duties, playfully dressing as MC Hammer and dancing to a few bars of “U Can’t Touch This.”
Dinner was served quickly before moving on to the dance competition. Judges were KTHV’s Craig O’Neill, Monika Crissler and Steve Landers. This year’s Championship Mirror Ball Trophy winner, a distinction that comes with the most money raised, was celebrity dancer Terry Masching and his instructor/partner Sydney Kneuven and NF Ambassador Hannah Elliott of North Little Rock.
The award for Best Performance went to Carla Emanuel and instructor/partner Brandyn D. Smith with ambassador Aaron Sullivan of Little Rock. Emanuel closed out her performance with a solo trek around the stage, dancing ballroom-style with Sullivan.
Every celebrity dancer who took the stage was a winner, receiving personalized mirrored ball trophies: Masching, the Frank Sinatra Award; Emanuel, the Wind Beneath My Wings Award; Steve “Wild Man” Wilson, the Cotton Eye Joe award; D.J. Williams, the InstaStar Award; Dr. Suzanne Yee, the Fearless and Fancy Award; and yoga instructor Wendy Cook, the Bend It Like Wendy Award.
This was the first year that NF Ambassadors buddied with celebrity dancers, said Lesley Oslica, president of the Arkansas chapter of the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
“The stars had a great time getting to know their NF Ambassadors, and our ambassador families received a great sense of hope that, together, we were making a difference in the fight against NF,” Oslica said.
Another first: the event garnered a record-breaking number of volunteers — more than 60 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences nursing school.