It isn’t often that the Chief of Staff of the hopital is seen in his boxer shorts, aside from an episode of Grey’s Anatomy; but, attendees at the Dancing with the Stars event, Saturday night, saw Dr. Joshua Garrett of Habersham Medical Center in his boxers performing an homage to Tom Cruise’s epic movie scene in “Risky Business.” Ten other teams competed in a variety of dance perfomances.
Walt and Fran Dundore traveled up from Griffen to support “Doc O” or Octavious Mulligan in his performance with partner, Savannah Hayes. “It was worth every mile to be here, to see he still has it,” said Dundore who was at Habersham Central with Mulligan, “I am sure there is plenty of icy hot back stage.” Tommy Crawford, son of contestant Natalie Crawford, said his Mom rated, “a 10,oooo” no mere 10 for his Mom.
Wade Rhodes, of Norton North Real Estate, said, “this is what brings a community together, enjoying seeing the leaders of the community in a different light. This is a terrific event.”
The night began with perfomance of the Habersham Central Dance Team and was ably emceed by Dalton Sirmans and John Borrow. Team One started off the competition with a nod to the Blue’s Brother’s “Soul Man.” Alan Nesmith and partner Carrie Elrod performance delighted the judges who remarked that the night was off to a great start.
Team Two certainly would have won best costume as Ivy Hall and her partner Chad Johnson were adorned in a glittery tribute to the best of the disco era complete with Johnson’s pants with red and blue lights running down the side. Under a disco ball, the team danced to a compilation of disco favorites that was so hot a fireman ran onstage to cool down the dancers.
Sheriff Joey Terrell showed no sign of his recent injury as he and his partner, Francie Keen, danced to the theme song to the Bond movies. Terrell lifted Keen in several moves seen regularly on the TV show. Team Six, was composed of NowHabersham’s own reporter, Justin Gallagher and Natalie Crawford, Habersham County Commissoner for District 4. Gallagher’s background in musical theatre led to a perfomance honoring Broadway.
The last dance team before the intermission was led by Habersham County Chamber President, Judy Taylor and her her partner, Matthew Temples. Their waltz told the story of “boy meets girl, boy courts girl, boy marries girl and lives happily ever after.”
At the beginning of the evening, the emcees announced that Taylor’s team was second in the “People’s Choice” competition. Votes were counted via dollars with each dollar counting as a vote. In the weeks prior to the competition, competition had heated up, particulary between Taylor’s team and Team 9 headed up by Tricia Hise. Prior to the performances’ start, Hise and her partner Trae Knight, led with over $11,000 “votes” raised. Taylor and Temples came in second with over $9300, Hall and Johnson were third with $4300, Nesmith and Elrod garnered $3000 and Holly Borrow and John Krippner brought in over $2200. Attendees were able to place more “votes” in the lobby during the intermission. Isabella Valadez, 14, remarked during the intermission, “it was fun and great to see the community come together to support such a worthy cause.”
The evening resumed with Krippner and Borrow moonwalking to a compilation of Michael Jackson’s hits, including “Thriller.” Judges were especially impressed with Coach Krippner’s “worm” moves. Former Vice-principal, Octavious Mulligan and his partner Savannah Hayes, brought hip-hop to the stage with Fresh Prince’s “Getting Jiggy with it.” Asked by Sirmans what the meaning of having one pant leg pulled up to his knee and the other down, Mulligan said, “cause that leg is HOT.”
Hise and Knight performed to “Blurred Lines.” After the perfomance, Hise’s young son, Max, presented his Mom with flowers. Then the spolight came on and out slide Dr. Garrett, in socks, boxers and a button-down shirt.” At the end of the performance, Garrett presented his partner, Ramona Stowe, with flowers. After accepting a robe from Emcee Sirmans, Garrett confessed that upon meeting his partner Stowe, she remarked, “have you ever seen Tom Cruise in Risky Business?”
The performances culminated with Gus Alexander and his partner Cheyenne Hayes wowing the audience and judges with a high energy performances with a number of lifts and moves favored by the dancers on the TV show. Audience members then raced back to the lobby for the final round of “voting.”
After a standing ovation, the dancers were praised by the Judges. Judge Becky Galvin, former dancer and former UGA Dance Dogs Coached, told the dancers that “I have been involved with 7 different ‘Dancing’ events in 4 different cities. Often it takes several times for the event to really happen but tonight you are to be commended. These first time dancers really ‘got it.'” Judge Ann Platz from Atlanta and Judge Polly Ann Erickson of Clarkesville, joined Galvin in praising the dancers. For the Judges’ award, Team 11, Alexander and Hayes, took the top prize. Team 4, Terrell and Keene took second and Team 3, Borrow and Krippner took third place.
The “People’s Choice” award was a heated competition with audience members holding up signs and calling out their favorite teams. At the end of the evening, the “votes” were finally tallied and Team 7, Taylor and Temples took home the top prize. Taylor had previously remarked that she was “in it to win it” and the team raised $13, 926 “votes. Tough litigator and competitor Hise of Team 9 and her partner Knight followed closly on Taylor’s heels with “$13,890, a slim margin seperating the two teams. Team 3, Borrow and Krippner took third place with with $4,933 in “votes.”
At the culmination of the evening, the hosts announced that the net profit for the event was an astounding $64, 549.00. The proceeds will be split between the hosts, Habersham Rotary Club and The Circle of Hope. April James, of HCMC, summed the evening, “it was so entertaining and I am so happy that it will become and annual event.”
Start practicing Habersham, recruiting for the next slate of dancers is already beginning!
Watch NowHabersham.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel for a video of the evening as well as a look at the rehersals and highlights of the work of the Circle of Hope.
