JA’s Dancing With The Stars Dazzles Sold Out Crowd

HOUMA, LA – Junior Auxiliary of Houma’s Dancing with The Stars presented by SafeZone, returned to dazzle a sold-out crowd on Saturday. The signature event pairs local celebrities with professional dancers to compete for the Mirrorball Trophy, while raising funds to assist families and children in need throughout Terrebonne Parish.

Ten dancing duos performed before a panel of local judges and nearly 800 attendees. Dancers included (celebrity listed first): Hayes Garrett with Julie Clement; Errol Bourgeois with Ashley Meche; Mandy Friloux with Roger White; Jerrlyn Duplantis with Destini Rickman; Corey Brunet with Bridget Landry; Justin Lirette with Morgan Steib; Matt Benoit with Sophia Lafont; Jeff Bordelon with Ashley Knight; Liz Morales Hebert with Crystal Green; Courtney Singleton with Jennifer Singleton.

Judges gave their scores for each performance, while audience members donated to each dancer’s Shake Your Money Marker Award. Once all the votes were tallied, celebrity dancer Justin Lirette and professional dancer Morgan Steib took home both the Shake Your Money Marker Award (raised most donations) and the coveted Mirrorball Trophy.

“We are so grateful to our sponsors, dancers, emcees, and volunteers for helping to make this year’s Dancing with The Stars an incredible success,” Katie Portier, JA of Houma’s President, said. “They put on an amazing show for a great crowd, who in turn were very generous in helping us raise funds for our impactful service projects.” Proceeds from the event fund the many service projects of JA of Houma, a service organization who provides charitable services beneficial to our local community that focus on providing physical and emotional support to those in need, with a particular emphasis on children. Currently, the 51-member group volunteers their time through 8 service projects, including working with the residents of the MacDonell Children’s Home, Terrebonne ARC, and local nursing homes. Their annual Krewe of You event provides a sensory- safe Mardi Gras event for special needs children while their annual Santa’s Sneakers event provides hundreds of shoes to local families.

Check out all the pictures from the event here.

At the Dancing with The Stars event, JA of Houma also announced the creation of a scholarship fund in celebration of their 50th anniversary that will be awarded to local students. This year’s event boasted new technology for registration, silent auction, and live-feed projection of the dance floor for better viewing. The upgraded event was a hit as it broke fundraising records! While the final expenses for the event are still being tallied, the event raised a gross income of more than $120,000 – which beat last year’s record breaking event by $30,000. “We are humbled by the support of our community for this event and JA,” Katie said. “Our members look forward to putting these dollars right back into our community through service to those in need throughout the year.”

ABOUT JUNIOR AUXILIARY OF HOUMA:
Junior Auxiliary of Houma is a group of women who desire to make a lasting difference in our community by meeting the needs of its citizens especially children. JA of Houma is currently accepting membership applications for the next provisional class until august 31. Learn more at http://jaofhouma.com/.