Danielle & Dan Pemble – winners of Dancing with the Stars, Marquette County Style
MARQUETTE — Dancing With The Stars, Marquette County Style kicked off last night.
Over the past weeks we’ve introduced you to most of the couples dancing to raise money for the U.P. Hospice Foundation. If you missed all the excitement, here is a look at the eight dancers lacing up their dancing shoes for charity.
From Blue grass jigs, Egyptian Cabarets to Samba Quicksteps and well of course, the widely known and popular, Renaissance Tango; These couples have put their pride on the line and their feet to the floor tapping their way to raise money for an organization that is all about helping patients and families in hospice care.
Bill and Ashley Hill are dancing to some lyrical hip hop. Jill and Zack Leonard were challenged with some bluegrass jig. Egyptian Cabaret was the dance of choice for the Tracy and Dave Nyberg
while swinging and jiving got handed to Bill and Michelle Nordeen.
And the fun doesn’t stop there, Stephen and Deborah Wissler are whistling to the tunes of the Renaissance Tango. Not to be outdone are Theresa and Mark Hamari who were quick and eager to learn the Samba Quickstep. Not feeling stuck at all are Sonia and Mark Stucko with a Jazz Tap combo. And putting an ending touch to the selection of dance styles are Danielle and Dan Pemble with a Broadway style Waltz.
This is the third year for Dancing with the stars Marquette County style. The first year they raised $35,000. Last year they more than doubled that amount and raised $90,000. The evening kicked off with a red carpet cocktail reception. With the event selling out in previous years a watch party was added. This addition sold out as well.
“Hedgcock is a buzz of activity right now. We have wonderful foods, desserts, we have wonderful drinks and lots of wonderful people. We have huge screens and we’ll soon see the program live on the big screens. It’s going to be great fun,” said Nheena Weyer Ittner. She emceed the live feed event and serves on the board of the Hospice Foundation.
As everyone waited for the event to start, attendees were able to cast last minute votes for their favorite couples. But, as we all know, winning the coveted mirror ball isn’t really the point.
“This is fun. When I did it the very first year, I had no clue what I was getting myself into but it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It was fun, it was wonderful raising money for the Hospice Foundation, and the people who benefit from our efforts…it’s just worth every second,” Ittner added.
The winning couple was Danielle and Dan Pemble. The judging consisted of a combination of the online votes and the judges scores.