{"id":18492,"date":"2017-09-29T20:57:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T00:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18492"},"modified":"2017-09-29T20:57:06","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T00:57:06","slug":"community-leaders-get-out-of-their-comfort-zones-in-dwts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-leaders-get-out-of-their-comfort-zones-in-dwts\/","title":{"rendered":"Community leaders get out of their comfort zones in DWTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nHis competitors thought he might have a bit of an edge \u2013 after all, his fancy footwork has served him well throughout his professional career.
\nThey\u2019ve carried him to international acclaim, representing Canada and England, picking up numerous trophies along the way.
\nBut, to his dismay, Jimmy Brennan has recently discovered that there are few transferrable skills from the soccer pitch to dancing glory.
\nFew? \u201cNone!\u201d he contends.
\nNevertheless, Mr. Brennan, president of the Aurora Youth Soccer Club, is one of eight community leaders who are being put through their paces by the professional dancers of Artistica Ballroom Dance studios ahead of the third annual Dancing With the Easter Seals Stars Newmarket\/Aurora, an evening of fun and entertainment which raises tens of thousands of dollars each year to send physically challenged kids to summer camp.
\nJoining him on the floor in the friendly dancefloor face off will be snap\u2019d Aurora\u2019s Melanie Bell, Brian Johns of Vince\u2019s Market, fraktals founder Ingrid Kulbach, Treefrog\u2019s Sarid Layton, community builder Stu McLaren, financial advisor Kevin Murdoch, and realtor Susie Strom.
\nSince signing on, each of the eight have been hard at work not only learning completely new and unfamiliar dance steps, but taking to social media to build awareness, raise funds and sell tickets for the event itself.
\nAll of it hard work, sure, but it\u2019s for a good cause with a big splash of fun.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great community fundraiser for the kids who are going to be able to do things they wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to do,\u201d says Strom, whose daughter Lindsay danced in the competition last year. \u201cShe is the newer, improved version so the expectations shouldn\u2019t be high! She just said to have a couple of drinks and to have fun.\u201d
\nFun is the name of the game for Kulbach, who has been building awareness of the events through videos on social media channels on her hunt for appropriate dancing shoes.
\n\u201cI enjoy dancing and it is such an incredibly fun evening for everyone and we are creating fun for those kids at camp,\u201d she says. \u201cI haven\u2019t fundraised before, so this is all new territory for me.\u201d
\nWhile Kulbach is showing a range of wildly inappropriate footwear in her videos, Murdoch is making a star out of his dog. So far, he and his canine have been recorded showing off tricks and luxuriating with a couple of drinks in the hot tub, but his dancing is under wraps.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been a fundraiser since Day One, so if you want to see me dance, you\u2019re going to have to pay for it!\u201d he jokes.
\n(And, full disclosure, The Auroran did see some of his moves at Thursday\u2019s group rehearsal and it might be worth the money!)
\n\u201cIt\u2019s for the kids. Bottom line. People need to dig in their pockets. It\u2019s a great charity.\u201d
\nAdds Strom; \u201cWe\u2019re okay looking like goofs to support the kids. This has been a lot more challenging than any of us thought, trying to remember everything. You think you\u2019re somewhat coordinated, but you\u2019re not! We are hoping [instructors Patrick Derry, Kelly Stacey and Anastasia Trutneva] make us look good.\u201d
\n\u201cThey will, for sure!\u201d says Kevin.
\nFrom the perspective of Brennan, being a part of this event is something he has wanted to do since seeing friends hit the floor in last year\u2019s competition.
\n\u201cIt is one of those things where you say, yeah, sure, and then the emails start coming and you realise you really have to do this now!\u201d he says. \u201cBut you\u2019re with good people and you\u2019re supporting the community, as well. We\u2019re willing to get out of our comfort zone and do whatever it takes to help, and we just hope the community will do the same.\u201d
\nFor more information on all eight of this year\u2019s Dancing With The Stars contestants, visit www.easterseals.org\/dancing-with-easter-seals-stars-newmarket-aurora. There, you can purchase individual tickets for the October 5 event ($150 per person or $1,100 for a table of eight) as well as vote for your favourite dancer.
\nTickets may also be purchased by calling 705-797-2675 or emailing cmyke@easterseals.org.
\nThis year\u2019s event will be held at the Venetian Banquet & Hospitality Centre in Concord.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His competitors thought he might have a bit of an edge \u2013 after all, his fancy footwork has served him well throughout his professional career.
\nThey\u2019ve carried him to international acclaim, representing Canada and England, picking up numerous trophies along the way.
\nBut, to his dismay, Jimmy Brennan has recently discovered that there are few transferrable skills from the soccer pitch to dancing glory.
\nFew? \u201cNone!\u201d he contends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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_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-18492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Og","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 10:52:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492","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=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}