After being cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, Volunteer and Information Quinte’s Dancing with the Stars fundraiser is rebooting for 2021, with some changes.
The annual event is swapping locations from CAA Arena, to the Empire Theatre and will feature two divisions of dancers who are all from the same household.
Division one includes pairs of spouses, while division two will see parents dance with their kids.
VIQ’s Executive Director Brenda Snider says moving to a new venue this year will allow the event to go ahead under COVID-19 protocols.
“The partnership with the Empire Theatre has allowed us to have this, we’ve done it in a way that’s COVID-friendly. We’re happy to be back and we encourage everybody to purchase tickets for September 24th, whether it’s virtual or hopefully we can have more people in-house at that time. Just come out and support the agency, all funds remain here local.”
Snider also stressed the importance of the event when it comes to bringing in money for the organization, which helps provide essential community information and recruit volunteers for any agency that needs them.
“We lost all our fundraisers in 2020, they were all cancelled and this is the only one we’re going to be hosting. Like every other agency it’s been difficult to move through. We’ve relied on grants and donations, so we are really ecstatic to be back and we hope we can just knock this out of the park this year.”
Cassandra Bonn is representing Quinte Broadcasting in the event for a third time and says she’s really looking forward to dancing with her daughter Grace.
“She’s just a very talented dancer and I actually feel really honoured to be able to spend quality time with her, dancing for a really great cause in our community. This is a new twist dancing with our children so I just said ‘Absolutely yes!’ and Grace is so excited too and it’ll be a new challenge for the two of us.”
Bonn added that the venue change to the Empire Theatre will make for a more intimate event, compared to the atmosphere of an arena.
Virtual tickets will be sold for $15 each and include one online voting code to select a winner, with another option to purchase a group viewing ticket for $45, that includes five voting codes.
There will also be an option to buy in-person tickets for $30 each ($5 for kids or $75 for a family pass), but the number of tickets being sold will be determined at the end of August and will be dependant on COVID-19 protocols.
You can click here for more information.
Here are the teams competing this year:
Division 1
- Kate Buttaro (Trenton Military Family Resource Centre)
Tony Buttaro (Patenaude Martial Arts Belleville)
Instructor: Alicia Sewell (Astounding Heights) - Jamie Bogart (TLR Sports Therapy)
Rodney Bogart (TLR Sports Therapy)
Instructor: Liane Ireland (Ireland School of Dance) - Kirsten Geisler (Quinte Conservation)
Cole Naylor (Starboard Communications)
Instructor: France (For the Love of Dance) - Jill Raycroft (Belleville Chamber of Commerce)
Barry Raycroft (RE/Max Quinte Ltd.)
Instructor: Krystle Humphreys (By the Moon)
Division 2
- Cassandra Bonn (Quinte Broadcasting)
Grace Bonn
Instructor: Isabella Rapino (Ireland School of Dance) - Aggy Popiel (Born to Move Canada)
Majka Popiel
Instructor: Liz Brown (Dance with Miss Liz) - Elizabeth Larson (Belleville Volkswagen)
Liberty Larson
Instructor: Annastacia Smith & Crystal Clark (Ontario Dance Academy) - Kim Baker (ParaMed Home Health Care)
Mikayla Baker
Instructor: Riley Martel (Astounding Heights)
Judges
- TBA
Hosts
- Charity Brown & Paul Ferguson (Starboard Communications)
