Dancing to raise money for NTMC
Dec. 29—Local celebrities will strut their stuff on the dance floor Feb. 16 to raise money for the North Texas Medical Center Foundation.
The first-ever Dancing With Our Stars event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Centennial Hall in Lindsay. The event will feature a competition including nine sets of dancers vying for the prestigious mirror-ball trophy.
"We will actually have two major awards that night," NTMC Foundation Executive Director Darin Allred said. "The mirror-ball trophy will go to the best dancers based on scores from a panel of judges that will include a pair of professional dancers from the Metroplex. The People's Choice Award will go to the dancers who get the most public votes, both from those in the audience the night of the event, as well as the general public who can vote for their favorite celebrity in advance of the competition. The key is that dollars equal votes. The more you donate to your favorite dancer, the more votes they get."
Donors can vote for their favorite dancer at www.ntmcfoundation.org, where they may see the featured dancers, buy tickets to attend the event and start bidding on silent auction items. Tickets for the event are $75 each. That includes a catered meal from Sarah's on the Square, drinks, and of course the featured entertainment. Those that attend will be able to vote on their phones for their favorite dancer, as well as bid on silent auction items.
Dancing With Our Stars will be the major fundraiser in 2023 for the Heart of NTMC Campaign to purchase of a Cardiac CT machine for the hospital.
"Currently, there is not a Cardiac CT machine available in Cooke County, so local residents are forced to travel out-of-town for these important scans," Allred said. "Not only would having this machine at NTMC be convenient for local residents, it might be lifesaving. In addition to doing scans of the heart, it can also be used for regular CT scans when needed, which would double our capacity. That is huge when, for instance, a stroke victim comes into our Emergency Department. That lessens the chance that our one CT machine will be in use when needed for an emergency."
The competition will feature local dancers, who were allowed to pick their partner, their song and choreograph their dance. They are:
Chris McNamara— Network Operations Manager at Nortex Communications;
Bonnie Hess — Chief Nursing Officer at North Texas Medical Center;
Lloyd Reiter — President of First State Bank;
Emily Lewis — Director of the Associate Degree Nursing program at North Central Texas College;
Tommy Moore, the Mayor of the City of Gainesville;
Cindy (Alcala) Reed — Sales Representative for Jim Goldsworthy State Farm Insurance;
Cody Secrest, Senior Program Manager at Safran Seats USA;
Nancy Moore and Pam Enderby, two Gainesville residents who are both former Kilgore Rangerettes;
Jocelyn Archer, Haley Hughes, Taylor Loch and Shea Shaffer, Trident Process Systems.
Seating is limited for the event, so purchase tickets early. Sponsorships are also available which come with a table of 10. For more information, contact Darin Allred at (940) 612-8460 or by email at darin.allred@ntmconline.net.
