Hillside Food Outreach will host its 11th annual Dancing with Our Stars on Saturday, March 30, at the Ethan Allen Inn to benefit its work in ending hunger in Westchester, Putnam and Fairfield Counties.
Hillside volunteers deliver healthy and nutritious foods to over 2,000 men, woman and children in need. In total, Dancing with Our Stars has raised over $250,000 since its inception and the Arthur Murray of Danbury studio has been its longtime partner in this event.
The event features nine members of the community who signed up for the event and take weekly dance lessons (donated by Arthur Murray of Danbury) for three months. Starting February 15, they are competing for online votes. Friends, colleagues, neighbors and families can vote for
their favorite dancer at $10 a vote, which benefits Hillside’s programs. Two champions will be named on March 30: one will get the people’s choice award and the other will be named by the judges, who vote that night. Each dancer (five women, four men) will be paired up with an
Arthur Murray instructor at the event.
The community is invited to attend Dancing with Our Stars, which runs from 6:30 to 10:30 pm. Tickets include dancing and dinner. “We have partnered before with Hillside and last year’s Dancing with Our Stars raised $30,000 for them and we hope to top that number this
year,” said Andy Cabell, owner of Arthur Murray of Danbury. “Hillside performs a much-needed job serving the community, helping seniors who often have to forgo medicine to afford food and assisting struggling families living paycheck to paycheck.”
Based in Pleasantville, N.Y., Hillside serves Fairfield, Westchester and Putnam Counties. Founded 20 years ago, its team of volunteers delivers food to seniors, and those in need, ill or incapacitated. In Fairfield County, they deliver from the Matrix Center in Danbury. Selly Vazquez of Brookfield, Ct., will chair this year’s Dancing with Our Stars. She was asked to dance a few years ago and loved it so she learned more about Hillside, going so far as to become a board member. “It was an amazing experience,” she said. She raised the most money her first year ($9,000) and won, the following year, her husband competed and won, raising $15,000, and
then her son, completed the family trifecta of dance champions, raising a whopping $19,500. “Hillside changes people’s lives!” she said.
This year’s dancers include Fairfield’s Monika Popovicova, Hillside supporter; David Arconti Jr, State Representative, Danbury; Paul DiNardo, Danbury Police Dept., retired; Angela Wong, Danbury City Center executive, Danbury; Suzanne Mercurio, Hillside volunteer, Danbury; Mary Anne Scrobe, fitness instructor, Yonkers; Victoria Drozdov, philanthropist and volunteer, Westchester; Carlo Covles, a pharmaceutical executive in New Jersey; and Will Wade, owner of Nissan City auto dealership, Port Chester, N.Y.
For more information, www.hillsidefoodoutreach.org