Dancing With Our Stars coming to Beaufort again

Some familiar local faces in the community are hitting the dance floor in March for a great local cause.

The stars known around Beaufort are competing not only for bragging rights as the best dancers, but also competing to raise money for one of the community’s most vital organizations, the Child Abuse Prevention Association, in the second annual Dancing With OUR Stars competition and fundraiser.

The 11 teams will have until March 9th to receive votes online. Each $1 donated gains the team one vote. Guests who attend the event at 7:30 p.m. March 10th at the Center for the Arts, University of South Carolina Beaufort can continue to vote for their favorite team by donating.

Each team has a goal to raise $10,000 for CAPA. The money will benefit the Open Arms Children’s Home for abused and neglected children and other CAPA programming.

The team that raises the most money will win People’s Choice Award. Each team will then take to the dance floor showing off their talent and strive for the Judge’s Choice Award. Among the judges for the competition are Nan Sutton, Mike McFee and Larry Jembree.

Dancing with OUR Stars will be hosted by Katie Huebel, owner of WED-Wedding Event Design, and Jesse Gavigan of Gavigan Entertainment Group, LLC.

CAPA Executive Director Christina Wilson said the fundraiser idea originally came from Exchange Club of Beaufort past-president Janet Horton who had heard about a Dancing with the Stars for Hope in Georgia in which a former Beaufort resident, Eric Spivey, had won.

This is the second yer for the event, and the first year went over very very well.

Among the 11 teams hitting the floor this year, there is a wide range of occupations including law enforcement, nurses, pastors, lineman, physicians, veterans, teachers, firefighters and more.

“We are so excited to see what the dancers are going to do. It’s going to be a fun evening for sure. The teams were allowed to pick any style of dance to any music,” Wilson said. “The only rule being there was to be no duplication of music choice.”

Meet the Beaufort stars:

Team 1: Abby Mitchell and Kimani Carpenter-Brown

Team 2: April Buquet and Chris Crabb

Team 3: Brandon Clark and Erin Hancock

Team 4: Dr. Robert Parrick and Samantha Slater

Team 5: Jason Clark and Megan Love

Team 6: Karen Wyman and Topher Maraffi

Team 7: Katie Godowns and Shykeem Gardner

Team 8: Othoniel Hatchett and Danielle White

Team 9: Ross Vezin and Erin Demers

Team 11: Tommy Pike and Ashtin Bellamy (there is not a Team #10)

Team 12: Tony Cuevas and Casey Frymire

Tickets went on sale January 16th and the show sold out in a day, but tickets for the Dress Rehearsal (Friday night March 9th) can be purchased online by visiting www.uscbcenterforthearts.com.