Waltzing, jiving, samba, foxtrot and tango hit the dance floor the night of March 26th with local celebrities strutting their stuff at Kelowna’s "2nd Annual Swinging with the Stars" fundraiser. The event based on the popular television show “Dancing with the Stars” paired professional dance instructors with local celebrities in a fund raising event to support the Central Okanagan Hospice Association (COHA).
COHA’s Executive Director, Bob Switzer said the event was a true success, “This event would qualify as the best fundraising event in Kelowna. Every aspect was a ‘10’ and so many people told me how much fun they had. It was simply amazing. We achieved our financial goal in a difficult fundraising environment and who knew we could raise so much money and have so much fun doing it.”
Jan Woolsey, our special event coordinator, also felt the event was a huge success with over $73,000. raised to support our volunteer bereavement and palliative care programs. “We created a unique, fun-filled, high energy event that everyone really enjoys. We could not do it without the commitment of our local celebrities and the dance instructors donating their time and effort. They are simply amazing and this year’s dancers definitely raised the bar – many of them adding some theatrics to their routines. They are definitely the key to the success of the event.”
The winner of the best dance performance trophy went to Tracy Hutton and Phil Johnson. They performed a samba to Barry Manilow’s Copa Cabanna hit. Johnson said they found the experience way beyond their expectations, “Each and every one (or two in the cases of the couples) of us could have, should have had a trophy. Somehow we ended up winning but in our mind, the best part of the evening was the laughter, the hi-5’s, the comradeship that was experienced in the green room with our fellow dancers. There was genuine support from each of us to the others.”
Another facet of the event was a pledging program. Each dancer had a ‘campaign manager’ representing them. Their role was to raise funds in their dancer’s name, all in support of Hospice. The pledging campaign raised $27,000 in total, and the “most pledges raised trophy’ was awarded to Elisha Ribeiro, representing dancer, Garry Benson.
Local celebrities dancing this year included Anne O'Keefe, manager of Hospice Palliative Care Services for the Central Okanagan with Interior Health; Tracy Hutton, owner Jigsaw Trading Co., and her partner Phil Johnson, 1150 AM talk show host; Ruth Stewart, Quails Gate Winery; Rosemary Thompson, owner Living Sources Media and her husband Don Thompson, Director IT Media and Classroom Services at UBCO; Garry Benson, Lawyer, Benson, Salloum Watts LLP; Lori Welbourne, a syndicated columnist.