Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Mississippi host annual Dance Like the Stars

Aug. 22—TUPELO — Dozens of local celebrities put on their dancing shoes to show off their moves on Saturday night during the 16th annual Dance Like the Stars event.

Ripley native Miriam Anderson was named the grand champion of this year's event.

Dancers hit the stage at the BancorpSouth Arena with a goal help raise $210,000 for the Boy & Girls Club of Northeast Mississippi. To help reach their goal, Toyota Mississippi donated $20,000.

Boys & Girls Club of North Mississippi Evie Storey said by Saturday afternoon the nonprofit had already surpassed their goal for this year's event raising $261,000.

By the end of the event, they had raised a total of $271,243.

"It's very exciting and important for us," Storey said. "We started in June and during the summer months, we had to use money for other things. As we started back to school, things started to really pick up for us. So, everything is so in sync and we're just excited and grateful to be able to exceed our goal for this year."

This year's event was modified due to recent rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Those who weren't able to attend this year's event, were still able to watch the stars dance online on the non-profit organization's Facebook page, which Storey said was a very helpful and successful tool for them during last year's event.

"This year was the first hybrid event with some in-person attendance and others about to watch online," Storey said.

"People who were not able to attended, were still able to get that at home television experience like the real show," Storey added. "We already had lighting set up with a big production crew and sound quality in place. All we had to figure out was how to best bring that experience to people at home."

jayson.burnett@djournal.com