Dancing with the Local Stars

Bill and I went to the Fifth Annual Dancing with the Local Stars at the Pearson Air Museum last night. We have been to all five events and they are always a good time. Bill had been involved in the Pearson Air Museum on the board and was the last president before turning it over to the Trust so we have a special fondness for the museum and supporting it. The dance is a fundraising event to raise money for the children's programs at the museum as well as other programs of the Fort Vancouver National Trust. It is a huge time commitment for these busy community members to prepare for this event. They literally spend months taking dancing lessons and have a minimum level of fundraising that they each have to achieve. Some even hold additional events ahead of time to to try to raise more funds. It is truly a labor of love to participate in this event. This year's event raised over $68,000 for the trust.

The 2010 participants were Susanne Cox-a vice president with Vesta Hospitality, K.C. Fuller-a commercial real estate broker, Carol Curtis-a real estate agent and commissioner for Clark Public Utilities, Lisa Dow-a banker with West Coast Bank, Nelson Holmberg-executive director of the Port of Woodland, and Larry Smith-retired Army colonel whose last duty station was Vancouver Barracks, real estate agent and city council member.

There are always some fun moments trying to outdo each other making their entrances or trying to bribe the judges. This year, Carol Curtis jumped off a platform with a parachute to reenact her parachute jump into Pearson on her wedding day in 1994. Larry Smith did a lot of different things as part of his presentation. He and his partner arrived at the hangar doors in antique military vehicles, he had an Army band member play reveille, had a script for asking his partner to dance and thanking her afterward and had several men in military uniforms from all the eras in which soldiers have been stationed at Vancouver Barracks and explain who they were representing and what they were involved in to help promote the establishment of a new military museum on the reserve grounds.

Our support was going to Larry. He is in Rotary with Bill and asked Bill to help him by making some videos to post on YouTube to help advertise the event and him in particular. We were so pleased that he won. Here is the video Bill worked on. We recorded the dance last night so there may be another video in the making at some point. Dancing with the Stars-Larry Smith Video.