Event nets $163K for NTMC campaign

Feb. 21—The North Texas Medical Center (NTMC) Foundation raised over $165 thousand dollars Thursday evening with the Dancing With Our Stars event.

Based on the competition dance show, nine groups featuring local celebrities encouraged people to vote for them online then danced for more votes. Each dollar donated counted as one vote for a particular dance group.

Also as part of the event, there was a silent auction, a raffle for $200 worth of scratch-off tickets and a 50/50 raffle.

All proceeds from the event are going to the Heart of NTMC campaign, which is raising money for NTMC to purchase a heart-catheterization lab. This equipment will allow many heart-related illnesses to be treated at NTMC instead of patients having to be transferred to another hospital.

Overall, $165,630 was the total raised: $71,903 was voting and donations to dancers before the event; $50,978 in private donations and $7,760 was from the silent auction. The rest came from sponsorships, ticket sales and the raffle.

"That will really save on a lot of transfers to other facilities once we can have that data," said Dr. Solomon Spiegel, a cardiology specialist who is affiliated with NTMC. "It gives you a lot of information without having to go into the body and go into the arteries ... This allows us to screen people for coronary artery disease ... This allows us to catch a lot of diseases that we may otherwise miss."

While the Dancing With Our Stars event raised a lot for the heart lab, it is only the beginning of getting enough funding.

"We still have a long way to go to be able to pay for this machine; $1.6 million is how much this machine is going to cost," said Darin Allred, the head of media outreach for NTMC. "The Heart of NTMC campaign will continue throughout the year, so please encourage your friends to go to ntmcfoundation.org to donate at any time."

The dancer who won the People's Choice Award was Emily Lewis, the Director of the Associate Degree Nursing program at North Central Texas College, and her partner Vince West who raised $15,805.52 in votes. The two of them danced to a medley of country classics.

There was also a panel of judges consisting of Lisa Bohannon and professional dance couple Joe and Ann Cutaia.

These three determ ined the overall champions of the competition. This honor went to Pam Enderby and Nancy Moore, former members of the world-famous Kilgore College Rangerettes, with their routine to "All That Jazz" from the musical "Chicago."

Other dancers included Networks Operation Manager at Nortex Communications Chris McNamara, Chief Nursing Officer at NTMC Bonnie Hess, First State Bank President Lloyd Reiter, Mayor of Gainesville Tommy Moore, sales representative from Jim Goldsworthy's State Farm office Cindy Reed, Senior Program Manager at Safran Seats Cody Secrest and employees of Trident Office Systems Jocelyn Archer, Haley Hughes, Taylor Loch and Shea Shaffer.

DANCER TOTALS

Emily Lewis $15,805.52 Cody Secrest $11,238.17 Trident Ladies $8,241.69 Nancy Moore and Pam Enderby — $7,869.87 Cindy Reed — $6,523.24 Chris McNamara $6,459.39 Lloyd Reiter $4,470.00 Bonnie Hess $3,646.64 Tommy Moore $2,288.22