March of Dimes: Local celebs put best foot forward for benefit

Get ready for the second annual local version of “Dancing With the Stars.”

“Dancing For Babies” is set for early next week, and participants are busily preparing with dance lessons at Ballroom by Bill, one of the event’s sponsors.

Creative Images photographer Tim Dishong organized this annual event to benefit the March of Dimes, which aims to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

New Castle County Councilman and Fox Rothschild attorney Bob Weiner and the Kishka A Capella Quartet will perform three songs for the opening number, with Weiner singing bass for “Under the Boardwalk.”

“A lot of people just think of me as the rebel rouser councilman,” said Weiner, a Brandywine Hundred Republican. “Delaware March of Dimes has given me a chance to step away from the political arena to allow me to use my dancing and singing skills to help others.”

Weiner and Ballroom by Bill instructor Alexandra “Alex” Hafiuk will later dance a cha cha with a swing influence, incorporating some dips, drops and lifts – breaking the ballroom rules.

Dancing for an event close to their hearts
Delaware Department of Health and Social Services spokesman Carl Kanefsky and his wife Cathy will dance a combination of the ranchero, a tango and a merengue. Kanefsky is dancing as a representative of the Delaware Chapter of the March of Dimes Board of Directors. The organization is close to the hearts of Carl and Cathy Kanefsky, who are the parents of three boys.

“Our oldest boys, 19-year-old twins Sam and Adam, were born 16 weeks premature,” said Carl Kanefsky, a former reporter with WDEL. “They both weighed less than two pounds at birth and lived in the hospital for four months before ever coming home.”

The boys both suffer developmental delays and, at age 5, were diagnosed with autism, he said.

“While life is a roller coaster, one thing is clear. We never would have even had the opportunity to get on the ride had it not been for the March of Dimes research that led to medical advances that saved their lives,” he said.

RE/MAX Associates Realtor Gina McCollum-Crowder and her husband, Steve Crowder, will dance the elegant tango for the cause. McCollum-Crowder and her husband have had family members and friends who have been touched by premature births.

“We have gone from stepping on each others toes, to learning the basics, to the choreography of an actual routine that looks good,” she said.

Christiana Hospital Trauma Unit 2C nurse Tracey Robb and hospital tech Duane Armstrong, who works on the trauma floor, will dance the less formal bachata and merengue.

“On our floor we see so much sadness, despair, pain and lives that are changed in instant,” Robb said. “With the March of Dimes it gives families of the unborn and newborn the opportunity for hope when that life changing instant happens.”

The instructors’ point of view
Bill Mitchell and Hafiuk have donated their time to coach all the participants.

While the TV stars on the television show have had a minimum of 250 hours of instruction, “Dancing For Babies” participants have only been practicing for a few hours a week since February, Mitchell said.

“It’s not the strictest competition,” he said. “It’s a more of a fun thing. We’re all working together. Their family and friends are going to vote for them regardless.”

A range of dances on display
Among other numbers, Mitchell will dance the tango as well as the folksier polka with Andye Daley and Martha Sturtevant, who are both active members of the Delaware GOP and members of the Brady Kohn Foundation Board of Directors.

“We plan to make up in humor what we lack in raw talent,” Sturtevant said. “We plan to steal the show, if not the trophy!”

Hilton Wilmington/Christiana Director of Sales Michelle Goad and her husband, Anton, will dance the rumba, a sexy Latin dance. (Two of their three sons were born premature and are doing well now.)

Bringing some balance to the show will be Pamela and Greg Mayse who, because of their height, will perform the slower, beautiful waltz. (Their son Justin, now 22, was born three weeks early and is doing well now.)

“But this is not the norm for a lot of premature babies who end up fighting for their tiny, little lives,“ Pamela Mayse said. “We are just happy to do our small part to help the March of Dimes … and hope others will help on the 11th as well!”