LUMBERTON — Twenty Robeson County residents will kick aside their inhibitions, take the stage and shake a leg tonight and Saturday, all for a good cause.
All you need to do is make it pay off.
Dance enthusiasts, or people looking for a good show or people wanting to support a good cause, can get tickets to tonight’s dress rehearsal of the United Way of Robeson County’s Dancing with the Robeson County Stars charity competition.
Tickets for tonight’s event are $30 each and can be bought until 5 p.m. today by calling 910-739-4249 or going to the United Way office at 2512-A Fayetteville Road in Lumberton, said Jordyn Roark, United Way of Robeson County Marketing and Community Outreach coordinator. Seating is on a first-come, first- served basis.
Saturday’s event is sold out, Roark said.
The fifth fundraising event will take place at the Southeastern North Carolina Agricultural Events Center, located at 1027 U.S. 74 East. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. today and the show will begin at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday, doors will open at 5 p.m., dinner will begin at 6 p.m., and the show will start at 7 p.m.
Proceeds from the competition will benefit the The Robeson County Family Treatment Court, which works to keep families together when they are in the court system, but whose future is in doubt because of funding cuts.
“We do not set a fundraising goal for this event,” Roark said. “Our goal is to raise as much as possible for the Robeson County Family Treatment Court.”
The last Dancing with the Robeson County Stars was in 2015 and it raised about $200,000, she said.
Ten pairs of dancers will step and stomp, move and groove to the delight of audience members and to raise money for the Family Treatment Court. They have been practicing their routines for more than a year as plans were to hold the event in 2017, but Hurricane Matthew changed that.
The dancing duos are Rhonda Williamson and Jon Davis, Michelle Hunt and Charles Townsend, Michelle Smith and Brian Britt, Catherine Gaines and Joe Terranova, Jill Britt and Owen Thomas, David McClish and Kristy Locklear, Terri Massol and Tim Little, Marla Bullock and Dennis Powers, Tanya Underwood and Hector Miray, and Angelica Chavis-McIntyre and Jason Cox.
The coveted Mirror Ball Trophy will go to the dancing dynamos who raise the most money via public voting.
Tonight’s judges are Kathy Hansen, Veronica Hardy and David Walters. Hansen is program director at Southeastern Wound Healing Center and a member of the United Way Executive Committee. Hardy is an associate professor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Walters works at Lumberton Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac.
The judges for Saturday night are Donnie Douglas, Jessica Lowery Clark and Tiffany Peguise-Powers. Douglas is editor of The Robesonian and has been a judge twice before. Clark is executive director of Robeson County Partnership for Children. Peguise-Powers is a Lumberton-based lawyer, a member of the United Way of Robeson County board of directors and a member of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Public voting online, by telephone or at the United Way office in Lumberton ended at 5 p.m. Thursday. The voting will reopen during the events.
