Susanna Freymark
They danced, they laughed and raised $100,000. There were blingy outfits, fancy hats and Ken and Barbie and Ghostbusters made an appearance.
It was an extraordinary effort from nine people who started their Stars of Casino journey by putting their hands up to individually raise $3000 for the Cancer Council.
Each of those nine people has been touched by cancer in their family and this was motivation to raise money.
Cancer Council’s Tara Koellner said contestants had raised $65,000 before the dance comp at the Casino RSM last night, Saturday, June 29.
The crowd of more than 300 people cheered when the total donations added up to $100,000 by the end of the night.
Tara said tickets for the event sold out in 36 hours.
The judges on the night were Richmond Valley mayor Robert Mustow, Federal MP Kevin Hogan, Leesa Battistuzzi and State MP Richie Williamson.
Mr Mustow wore a bright red ringmaster jacket that he wore when he was a dancer at the Cancer Council’s 2019 event. Mr Hogan was a judge then too and he wore the same sparkly gold jacket that he said cost him $15.
The stars of the night were of course the dancers and their dance teacher partners.
Sonya Marks, Marika Gava, Erica Trustum, Cindy Richards, Dan Clark, Cohen Parrish, Sarah Smith, Adam Armistead and Margaret Magner teamed up with dancer teachers Sophie Gray, Arabella Barrett, Sarah Bird, Astoria Chapman, Angela Bontea, Keely Maguire, Kate Dennis, Libby Wyatt and Jess Freeburn Mackney.
The prizes were presented at the end of the night. The winners were:
Judges’ Choice winner: Adam Armistead (dance partner Libby Wyatt who did the Ghostbusters dance
Judges’ Choice runner up: Cohen Parrish (partner Keely Maguire) who danced the Barbie routine.
Peoples Choice winner: Adam Armistead
Peoples Choice runner up: Cindy Richards
Highest Fundraiser winner: Erica Trustum ($20,000 raised)
Highest Fundraiser runner-up: Cindy Richards ($14,000 raised)
Below are photos from the dance comp.
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