{"id":11842,"date":"2015-09-09T08:20:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11842"},"modified":"2015-09-09T08:20:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:20:41","slug":"stars-set-to-dance-for-kids-who-cant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/stars-set-to-dance-for-kids-who-cant\/","title":{"rendered":"“Stars” set to dance for “kids who can’t”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theirs are familiar faces around Aurora and Newmarket, but if you\u2019ve seen them lately, they might have a few beads of sweat on their brows \u2013 and it has nothing to do with weather.<\/p>\n

Local businesspeople, politicians and volunteers have thrown down the gauntlet and are now breaking in their dancing shoes for an Aurora-Newmarket installment of \u201cDancing With The Stars\u201d, which will take place Thursday, October 1 at King\u2019s The Manor at Carrying Place, all to benefit Easter Seals.<\/p>\n

A popular fundraising event across Ontario for the organization, which raises money to support disabled children, this is a first for Aurora and Newmarket. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like it was time to come into this area because we heard we had lots of dancers here who would love to do a two-step for the kids who can\u2019t,\u201d says Charlene Myke of Easter Seals. \u201cWe are actually facing a bit of a shortfall in the area with some of our kids and we realised we needed to get an event going. We were lucky enough that it took off very quickly and we had so many people in the community step up and support the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stepping up \u2013 and lacing up \u2013 are Paul Dutton of snap\u2019d, Royal Woodworking\u2019s Donna Gerrits, Aurora Councillor Sandra Humfryes, Magna for the Community\u2019s Steve Hinder, long-time Newmarket volunteer Jackie Playter, Mike Rathke of M.R. Menswear, and business advocate Robin Taylor Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason [I signed up to participate] is I had a sister who was in a wheelchair and Easter Seals helped her out a lot,\u201d says Ms. Playter. \u201cShe has passed away now, but when she was young and we needed a wheelchair, they were there, and I felt like it was time to give back and that\u2019s why I got involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Playter is not alone. Many of the participants said they have been impacted in one way or another by the work Easter Seals performs in the community, whether they have seen the work in action themselves, or have heard first-hand accounts from those who have truly benefitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an excellent cause, \u201csays Ms. Taylor-Smith. \u201cI have done things with Special Olympics before and the more you can do, the better. It has always been a worthwhile endeavour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rathke, on the other hand, is a brain cancer survivor. His tumour affected the left side of his body, so dancing has been a bit of a challenge, but he\u2019s battling through it, finding himself improving slowly with every time he hits the dance floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had a couple more months [to practice], it would be a lot better,\u201d he says. \u201cI am fortunate to be around so that is why I am involved in this event.<\/p>\n

Partnered with dance instructors from Artistica Ballroom Dance Studio, each of the \u201cStars\u201d will debut their two dances at the October 1 event. Each performance will be critiqued and praised by a panel of judges. The seven dancers will then be whittled down to a top three \u2013 two of whom are selected by the judges and the third, who is selected by the voting crowd. Then, the last round comes right down to the judges.<\/p>\n

As the \u201cStars\u201d practice their moves, they are also actively fundraising through the cause, not only selling tables and tickets for the event, but collecting online pledges as well. If this wasn\u2019t enough, they are learning a thing or two on the dance floor as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to tell you that in 30 years of policing, I had a number of very anxious moments, but I have never been more anxious than I am now. This isn\u2019t easy!\u201d says Mr. Hinder. \u201cOne of the dances I am doing is the west coast swing (I didn\u2019t even know there was a west coast swing, let alone an east coast swing, but apparently there is). The other dance is called Peabody. I had to look these things up because the only dancing I know is moving around the floor at Hoedown. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to focus and do a lot of footwork. At the end of the day, I think people in the audience know we\u2019re doing this to support Easter Seal kids and I think there will be people there to say, darn, I wish I had gone up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Mr. Dutton: \u201cI like being involved and giving back to the community. If this was polo, I might not be so into it, but I like to dance and move, but having a chance to formally learn how to dance while supporting Easter Seals? I\u2019m in. We are going to be bad, but I am working hard to be good!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dancing with the Stars Aurora-Newmarket hopes to raise $60,000 for Easter Seals. Funds raised will largely benefit their Send a Kid to Camp program which, when costs for personal care workers for the individual children is factored in, can often cost $2,500 per child for 10 days. It will also raise vital funds for equipment and mobility devices.<\/p>\n

To support the dancers of your choice with your vote \u2013 and your $20 \u2013 visit www.easterseals.org\/dancing-with-easter-seals-stars-newmarket-aurora.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Familiar faces from Aurora and Newmarket are in-studio for some intense training before hitting the dance floor October 1 to raise $60,000 for Easter Seals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-350","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-02 03:56:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-10-07.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}