{"id":24968,"date":"2019-10-17T14:15:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T18:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24968"},"modified":"2019-10-25T16:33:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T20:33:21","slug":"dancing-with-the-stars-raises-more-than-80000-and-counting-for-easter-seals-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/dancing-with-the-stars-raises-more-than-80000-and-counting-for-easter-seals-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing with the Stars raises more than $80,000 (and counting) for Easter Seals kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Local stars shone on the dance floor of the Royal Venetian Mansion on Thursday night as their\nfancy footwork \u2013 and canny fundraising efforts \u2013 helped raise more than $80,000\nfor Easter Seals kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put through rigorous training over\nthe last few months by Artistica Ballroom Dance Studio instructors Anastasia\nTrutneva, Kelly Stacey, and Patrick Derry, participating dancers Kyle Peterson\n(outgoing Newmarket-Aurora MP), Joe Gorman of Humber River Hospital, realtor\nMatthew Miller, Artsy Baker Antonella Cellini, business owner Patricia Ristich,\nand Tracy Walter of the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce, showcased their moves in\nfront of a packed house, taking time between their two individual numbers to\nhighlight why they were there: dancing to help kids who can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further underscoring this message\nwas 2019 Easter Seals Ambassador Graham Baskin, a Grade 12 student from\nUxbridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy disability is actually\nundiagnosed and many of the doctors are puzzled by condition,\u201d he said. \u201cSo,\nwhat we know and what the doctors have concluded is that it is a neurological\ncondition that affects the connection between my brain and legs. We first\nnoticed this around Grade 1. I started to walk on my toes and soon after I\ncouldn\u2019t come down the stairs with alternating feet. By Grade 4, I was using a\nwalker and by Grade 7 I got a wheelchair to move around quicker and save my\nenergy. I still have a walker, I still love to walk, but it is easier for me to\nuse a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easter Seals has helped Graham and\nhis family in myriad ways, including purchasing an in-house lift, giving Graham\nrenewed independence at home, and providing formative experiences at summer\ncamp, surrounded by peers who have similar life experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that the lift is installed, my\nparents don\u2019t have to help me when I walk up or down the stairs \u2013 and I can\nparty at home,\u201d said Graham to the cheers from the audience. \u201c[Easter Seals]\ncamps are truly lifechanging. These camps are 100 per cent accessible and the\nkids that go can do anything they want, from activities like arts and crafts,\narchery, sledge hockey and the one in London even has a high ropes course 70\nfeet off the ground that kids in wheelchairs go on. I have to say the high\nropes course is scary! You get up there and it is such a nice view, but you\nrealize how high up it is. When these kids come home from camp, there are so\nmany great stories, great experiences, and we meet new friends. On behalf of\neveryone at Easter Seals and for all the kids who can go to camp and get\nequipment, I want to say thank you, thank you\nfor supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the\nfriendly dance competition, winners were evaluated by a panel of comprising of\nformer Dancing with the Easter Seals Stars contestants Mike Faherty, Melanie\nBell, Brian North and Andrea Peterson, along with votes taken from the table,\nand total amount of individual funds raised during the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising to the top were finalists Joe\nGorman, Patricia Ristich and Matthew Miller \u2013 with the latter emerging as the\nwinner of the 2019 competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody left the floor empty-handed,\nhowever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gorman was recognized as the\nevening\u2019s top fundraiser, having contributed $8,000 to the cause, while Kyle\nPeterson, despite taking a tumble in his first dance, being voted Best\nEntertainer. Antonella Cellini was recognized as Sassiest Dancer and Ms. Ristich as Most Passionate Dancer. <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Funds will help send children to camp, and purchase necessary equipment for kids and teens with mobility challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24957,"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-24968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-10-17-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6uI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 21:27:45","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\/24968","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=24968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}