Dancing with the Gloucester County Stars

Dancing with the Gloucester County Stars and the Greater Woodbury Chamber of Commerce crowned their winner for the fifth annual competition on Thursday night at Auletto’s in Deptford Township.

Al Bartolomeo and his partner Diane Alcavage danced their way to the highest amount of money raised for the competition and won the community award for it.

Bartolomeo danced the Viennesse Waltz to the song “Time of My Life.” Breaking from tradition the song was performed live by Michael Jones.

Bartolomeo danced to raise money for Devereux of New Jersey. Devereux provides a variety of support for nearly 400 special needs children, adolescents, adults and their families.

The competition saw its most successful year of fundraising with $144,738, which put the amount of money passed the three-quarter-of-a million dollar goal the Greater Woodbury Chamber of Commerce hoped to reach. After the competition the total stands at $781,000. Bartolomeo raised $34,521 for his charity.

“We won the dough,” Bartolomeo said. “It’s wonderful, I’m so happy.”

“I’m not surprised that Al won,” said Kayli Moran, an employee at Devereux of New Jersey. “When we first met with him he said he wanted to blow everyone out of the water.”

Kathryn marks won the technical award for her Jitterbug with partner Gene La Pierre. She raised $15,165 for New Jersey Aid for Animals, Gloucester County Society for the Protection of Animals Division. The charity rescues animals and educates the public about them.

“It was amazing, I’m very surprised,” said Marks.

The other contestants in the competition were Les Vail who raised $17, 535 for People for People, Tracy Duffield who raised $19,111 for the Food Bank, Wendy Bartlett who raised $24,150 for the Women’s Leadership Council of United Way and J.B. Stronski who raised $34,255 for the New Woodbury Chapter of Boys & Girls Club.

By Katrina Grant
kgrant@sjnewsco.com