Dance United 2016 raises over $47,000
Dance United participants Jena Eisenberger and Seth Blackey perform during the 5th Annual Dance United on Nov. 10 in the John G. Kulhavi Events Center.
The fifth annual Dance United fundraiser hit a record-high amount raised with a total of $47,846. This is double the 2014 and 2015 event totals of about $27,000 each.
The event was held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday night in McGuirk Arena. Hosted by the university in partnership with United Way of Gratiot and Isabella Counties charity, the dance competition pitted teams of students, faculty, staff and Mount Pleasant community members against one another.
In addition to the 11 duo-teams competing, performances were put on by the Central Michigan Dance Team and the CMU University Dance Theatre Company.
In the last four years, Dance United has raised more than $75,000.
Stan Shingles, assistant vice president of University Recreation and co-chair for Dance United, was an events moderator. Despite believing each Dance United event to be unique, he said the 2016 event has easily been the most successful in terms of fundraising.
“Every (event) has its own personality in terms of the engagement of those who have helped us to fundraise,” he said. “I don’t want to say one is better than the other. This was (just) the most successful financially.”
Shingles said Dance United is just one of many opportunities for donors to give to the Dance United campaign. He originally pitched the event as a CMU “Dancing with the Stars,” thinking the angle would differentiate it from the standard fundraiser.
“To think it in would end up at this level of success would have been thinking boldly, but here we are today, having raised $47,000,” he said. “(The money) will go into United Way’s efforts to (fundraise) for the welfare of our community.”
A majority of the money is raised by the dancers through their own social media fundraising efforts. A portal on United Way’s website also allowed people to pledge money to vote for individual dance teams. Addition funds come from the actual event. Audience members could reserve VIP tables for $400, and could donate by texting a hotline during the competition.
Winners of the event were determined by the team able to raise the highest amount of money. This was the first year teams raised more than $2,500.
First place was given to the husband-wife team, Jesse and Krystal Swindlehurst, who raised a total of $9,315. Second place went to the father-daughter team, Wes and Vivian Wickes, who raised $6,825. Both individual teams raised more than the previous year’s winners.
Separate honors went to the teams made up of CMU students. First place went to seniors Shelby Harris and Michael Greco who raised $786. Second place went to the team of Anna Prielipp and Michael Betka, who raised $755.
