Dancing for the Kids raises $140,000 for the Showers Family Center : Inside Children's Blog

Event chair Parker Berry speaks to the crowd gathered at the Akron Civic Theatre for the 8th annual Dancing for the Kids event.

The 8^th annual Dancing for the Kids fundraising event, hosted by the Emerging Leaders of Akron Children’s Hospital, raised $140,000 to benefit patient and family services at Akron Children’s Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders.

The event, presented by Adams, Gut & Associates, featured 9 local celebrities who performed on the Akron Civic Theatre stage with their University of Akron dance partners to raise money for Akron Children’s:

Eileen Alfonso Benson – Women’s Board, Akron Children’s Hospital and Director of New Member Development, Fairlawn Country Club
Eileen V. Brown – Senior Manager of Advisory Services, Ernst & Young
Tracy Dowe – Vice President, Relationship Manager, Wells Fargo
Kylie Rose Jacobs – Patient at Akron Children’s Hospital
Christine Norman – Retail Operations Specialist, Giant Eagle
Jill Penrose – Vice President of Human Resources, The J.M. Smucker Co.
Dr. Megan Sampson – Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist, Akron Children’s Hospital
Maureen Thune – Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Bill Vasilatos – Logistics Planner, Fleet Support, FedEx Custom Critical

The event was emceed by 98.1 KDD’s Keith Kennedy and judged by Dr. Sarah Adams, a pediatrician at Akron Children’s; Vish Bhatt, operations manager for the Showers Family Center at Akron Children’s; and Justin Hilton, senior associate vice president for university relations at Kent State University.

Emcee Keith Kennedy looks on as Bill Vasilatos from FedEx Custom Critical hits the stage.

It’s safe to say Akron Children’s patient and cancer survivor Kylie Rose Jacobs stole the show with her performance to “Tiny Dancer.” She then took the stage again to dance with her younger sister, Emmie, and Creative Motion Dance Studio.

Kylie, age 10, has battled cancer 3 times. She was first diagnosed with a Wilms tumor, a form of kidney cancer, at age 5 and went through 16 rounds of chemotherapy and major surgery to remove her tumor and kidney, along with radiation therapy. A little more than a year after her initial diagnosis, doctors found a spot on her liver and Kylie once again faced chemotherapy and surgeries. The cancer then came back again later that same year.

Now, after numerous rounds of chemo, surgeries and a stem cell transplant, Kylie has been cancer free for more than a year and recently celebrated her first survivorship day. She’s been dancing since age 2 and her mom, Carrie Jacobs, said she thinks dance has helped Kylie get stronger after her battle with cancer.

Akron Children’s patient Kylie Rose Jacobs takes the stage with her University of Akron dance partner, Tiffany Campbell.

Kylie capped off her evening by also taking the mirror ball trophy for top fundraiser. She raised more than $28,000 for the Showers Family Center.

Jill Penrose and Maureen Thune also took home mirror ball trophies for their fundraising efforts. Penrose raised $25,953, and Thune raised $15,347.

At the end of the night, $126,411 was announced as the fundraising total, but donations continued to come in and brought the amount raised to $140,694.

The fundraising amount is revealed at the end of Dancing for the Kids.

Enjoy more photos from the fundraising event!

Dance Unlimited kicked off the evening’s on-stage performances.

Eileen Brown (right), from Ernst & Young, performs with her University of Akron dance partner, Alexis Hartung.

Wells Fargo’s Tracy Dowe (right) takes his turn in the spotlight with University of Akron dance partner, Natalie Minns.

Jill Penrose (right), from The J.M. Smucker Company, kicks it up a notch during her turn on stage with University of Akron dance partner, Amanda Kindt.