Dancing With the Stars Austin 2009: A Winning Evening!

This year's Dancing With the Stars Austin 2009 event took place on Sunday night (Dec. 6) and it was, again, a huge success! I've heard unofficial estimates that the event raised upwards of $600K for the Center for Child Protection.

Other winners of the evening included Dave Steakley and Jolie Generalov, who won the Mirror Ball Trophy. 1st runners up Sheriff Greg Hamilton and Lindsay LeBlanc. 2nd runners up: Holly Mills-Gardner and Shaun Bruno.

These were the recognized winners of the evening but in my mind everyone was a winner. I can't tell you how proud I was of all of the contestants, STEPPING OUT of their comfort zone and STEPPING UP for a great cause. I saw the months of preparation that each contestant put into their performance and it totally paid off!! Thank you all for your hard work and big hearts!

(Here I am at the event in my dance with Richard Garriott)

If you were not able to attend the event this year, I'm told that the performances will be available exclusively on Time Warner Cable beginning on December 15th through the end of January. Look for it on Central Texas On Demand (cable channel 1400) and for each view, Time Warner will donate $1 (up to $5000) to the Center for Child Protection!

3rd Annual Dancing With the Stars Austin

It's almost time! Dancing With The Stars Austin - 2009 is only a few weeks away. As most of you know, I'm the Director for the event and everything is shaping up so that it looks like it's going to be a great show again this year. I think most of the tables are sold out but if you want to be added to the waiting list or to find out about any remaining event sponsorships that might be available, please contact Emily Jansen Payne at (512) 472-1164 for information.

Date/Location for this year's event:
Sunday, Dec. 6 2009
Hilton Downtown
500 East 4th Street

Event Timeline
6:00 PM Cocktails and Silent Auction
7:00 PM Dinner and Performances
9:30 PM Live Music by Trish Murphy and Skyrocket

Dancing with the Stars Austin presented by Lexus of Austin features Austin celebrities paired with professional dancers for a ballroom dance performance and a unique evening of entertainment. Enjoy live, semi-live and silent auctions, a drawing for a luxury Lexus vehicle, and live music so that every guest has the chance to dance the night away! To see highlights and photos from previous events, click here. Video of the 2007 and 2008 performances are available through the Center for Child Protection's YouTube page.

2009 Celebrity Dancers
Joanie Bentzin, Energetic Austin Promoter and Social Networker
Gigi Bryant, 5th Generation Austinite, Community Volunteer & Businesswoman
Eloise DeJoria, Actress & Paul Mitchell Systems Spokesperson
Charles Duggan, Broadway and Greater Tuna Producer
Richard Garriott, 1^st Second Generation Astronaut / Computer Game Developer
Sheriff Greg Hamilton, Travis County Sheriff
Stacey Hammer, Local Business Owner & Community Volunteer
Susan Lubin, Austin Lyric Opera Supporter & Volunteer Extraordinaire
Holly Mills-Gardner, Miss Texas USA 1998 & TV Personality
Dan Neil, Former Denver Bronco & 2-Time Superbowl Champion
Dave Steakley, ZACH Theatre Producing Artistic Director
Michelle Valles, Local News Anchor & Community Volunteer
Mitchell Zoll, Lawyer with Strasburger & Price & Community Volunteer

Featuring a Special Performance By:
Chief Art Acevedo
Tammy Buckman
Katrine Formby
Linda McCaul
Laurée Moffett
Jeanne Parker
Ann Schneider
Robin Segesta
Deanna Serra

2009 Celebrity Judges
Ed Clements, Talk Show Host for KLBJ-AM
Carla McDonald, Founder & President of Dynabrand
Evan Smith, CEO & Editor of Texas Tribune

I can't wait to see you there!!!

Westlake Picayune Article About DWTS-Austin

In the Still Life section of the Westlake Picayune on Thursday, February 19, 2009, there was an article about our Dancing with the Stars - Austin event. The article doesn't appear on their website yet so I'm posting a scanned image of it for those of you who don't get that paper. (I had to make several images out of it since it's an oversized paper, but you can click on each image to see a larger version.)

Austin American Statesman Insert Today - DWTSA

There is an insert today in the Austin'AmericanStatesman entitled Party People. The sub-title reads:

"In Central Texas, a world of venues for fetes big and small."

If you turn to page 20, there is a little blurb about the Dancing with the Stars-Austin event.

You can also click on these pictures to get a version large enough to read here.

Dancing With the Stars - Austin 2008 Slideshow!

The event on Sunday was fantastic -- in every way.  I put together a slideshow of pictures and posted it on Slideshare.net. Click the link if you want to watch it there. The one from last year is also available. (Feel free to 'favorite' them or leave comments if you want.)

I've also embedded it below if you just want to watch it here. Find the menu bar at the bottom of the image. Click the "right arrow" button to get to the next slide. The button on the right side of the menu (that looks like a projection screen) is so you can expand it to fill your whole screen. It might be confusing at first, but just look at the menu on the bottom for options if you get stuck. And you can always press the Escape key to get out of it.

Hope you enjoy it!

2008 Dancing With The Stars - Austin

You can also check out the videos on YouTube that the Center for Child Protection posted.

Dancing with the Stars Austin 2008 was (again) a big hit!

Whew! The event was Sunday night at the Hilton Austin and, as everyone there can attest, it was a huge success. A night filled with laughter and sparkle and dance... all in an effort to raise money for an extremely worthy cause. I'm sure I'll be posting more about it when I get a chance, but until then, you can check out what a few others are saying about it:

• Arts and Entertainment editor, Michael Barnes, wrote about the evening on his Out and About blog
  
• News reporter, Heidi Zhou, has a few snippets on News8Austin (here and here) that aired before the event on Sunday
• MyFox Austin posted a sneak peek of Chief Acevedo practicing his dance moves
  

I want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone that helped and supported this event again this year. The Center for Child Protection is providing an amazing (and much-needed) service and I'm very grateful for everyone that has shown their support. And on a more personal level, thank you to all of the Austin celebrity dancers for stepping outside your comfort zone, not just for that evening, but for the investment of time in preparation for the event.

And thank you to all of the professional partners to our celebrities. Your time and your contributions were an essential element to the success of the evening!

As far as I'm concerned, everyone was a winner on Sunday night. Thank you!!!!

Dancing with the Austin Stars 2007: A Look Back

We just had a meeting about the Dancing with the Austin Stars event for 2008. It reminded me how much we all enjoyed it last year so I was looking at the Center for Child Protection website and it looks like there is a 3-minute "teaser". Check it out:

From 6 PM - 11 PM on Sunday, December 2, 2007 at The Hilton Austin, Austin celebrities were paired with professional dancers for a fund-raising ballroom dance performance. There is also a powerpoint presentation that shows the highlights of the evening.

Or, if you are interested in a certain dance, each celebrity's performance is now available as a windows media file:

• Cecilia Abbott, Attorney General Greg Abbott’s wife (View performance);
• Brent Buckman, Golf Pro and GM at the Spanish Oaks Country Club (View performance);
• Julie Crenshaw, Golf Celebrity Ben Crenshaw’s wife (View performance);
• Gerald Daugherty, Travis County Commissioner (View performance);
• Larry Gatlin, Country Singer-Songwriter (View performance);
• Christine Haas, KVUE Anchor (View performance);
• Patty Huffines, Sales and Marketing Team with Public Strategies (View performance);
• Bill Jones, law partner with Vinson & Elkins (View performance).
• Margaret Krasovec, philanthropist and entrepreneur (View performance);
• Ava Late, owner of the local BMW dealership (View performance);
• Andrea McWilliams, lobbyist and owner of a government affairs consulting business (View performance); and
• Lance Avery Morgan, publisher of Brilliant (View performance).

If this year is even half as fun as last year, we're due for a fantastic time!

Dancing with The (Austin) Stars!

Last night's Dancing with the Austin Stars was a huge success! Everyone had a blast and a lot of money was raised for the Center for Child Protection.

Thank you to all the Sponsors, Supporters, and Contributors! Without you it would not have been possible.

Thank you to all of the Austin Stars who generously and courageously stepped outside of your comfort zone to help raise money for the Center.

And again, a personal thank you to everyone that helped with all the work that went on behind the scenes! It was a lot of work but it was a huge success!

I put together a slideshow of the event using some pictures I got from Eric Hegwer . (Please be patient as it tries to load -- it's a lot of photos. (For high quality copies of any photos from that evening, contact Eric at www.erichegwer.com)