Dance ‘stars’ help cash flow for children’s museum’s budget

ROGERS — It was as celebrity dancer Brock Gearhart said: “It’s not something I’d raise my hand to do, but I’m glad to do it for the children’s museum.”

Several contestants in the fifth annual Dancing With the Stars fundraiser expressed the same sentiment, and they, too, carried through with the same enthusiasm for the cause — to eventually build the Children’s Museum of Northwest Arkansas.

“I always said I dance like nobody’s watching, but tonight I wish nobody was watching,” said Susan Burckart, a former elementary school principal who won the People’s Choice Award part of the competition. Her support at the gala, held March 10 at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center, was overwhelming. Tables full of fans made their own florescent-colored score cards, all “10”s, of course, for Burckart and her dance partner, Adam Richardson.

Judging was a farce, really. When celebrity dancers didn’t get the high scores they were after, they were bestowed with carnations bought by fans (and sold by event organizers) to bribe the judges. All agreed, though, that the best celebrity dancer was Andrea Thomas, senior vice president for sustainability for Wal-Mart. Dancing the salsa with professional Mark King, Thomas was deemed the Dancing With the Stars Champion.

Burckart and partner Adam Richardson made their way through the cha-cha, then she made her way to the dressing room, overcome with emotion after discovering a family friend, Christopher Houser, had taken a break from his service in the U.S. Air Force to come see her dance.

Other celebrity dancers and their partners were Gearhart, vice president and a registered investment advisor for Greenwood Gearhart Inc. with Sheila Richardson; Sandy Edwards, deputy director at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, also with Adam Richardson; Michael Poore, superintendent of Bentonville Public Schools, with Aura King; and Ben Blakeman of Blakeman’s Fine Jewelry, with partner Brandy Bangs.

Many of the contestants started rehearsing with their partners as early as August.

The couples performed everything from the foxtrot to the jive; some even combined dances within their routines.

Event chairman Angie Brandenburg said she expects an announcement soon about the museum and where it will be built. Proceeds from the last five years of Dancing With the Stars fundraisers have gone toward operating costs of the museum office, which has two employees. She said the event was getting “bigger by the year,” growing in attendance from 550 to 650 this year alone.

“We’re a lot closer than we were five years ago [to opening the museum],” she said.

Dancing with the starts is so popular, that several have already stepped up to say they’ll “step up” next year, including KNWA-TV’s Neile Jones, who emceed the event with KKIX-FM radio personality Jake McBride, a former Dancing with the Stars celebrity dancer.