By Tess Wisher
Special to The PREVIEW
The stars of Dancing with the Pagosa Stars have been anxiously preparing for this year’s event. Annita Bens, Jason Cox, Chris Hopkins, Mike Le Roux, Laura Moore, Steve Potter, Nicki Smith and Evelyn Tennyson have all spent countless hours practicing their dips and turns in preparation for July 20.
These amazing Pagosa Springs stars have also been rallying their friends and family to vote early online so they can win the Mirror Ball Trophy.
All of these votes are being counted up and put toward each star’s race toward the Mirror Ball Trophy. This online voting closes tomorrow, Friday, July 19, at 5 p.m. and each star is still trying to rack up the votes for themselves and, most importantly, the children at Seeds of Learning. Each $1 vote goes directly to support Seeds of Learning to continue to provide high-quality early education in Pagosa Springs. Attendees will be able to vote, via ballot, at the event on Saturday, July 20, at 5:45 p.m. at the Ross Aragon Community Center.
Eighty percent of the children enrolled at Seeds are considered low income or at risk, meeting one or more criteria such as living at or below poverty level, having disabilities, or living in a household with family and/or parent challenges. To ensure that these kids can have access to high-quality early education, all families pay tuition on a sliding scale based on income. This means 80 percent of the Seeds families cannot afford to pay the full tuition of $52 per day, with many paying $30 per day. Dancing with the Pagosa Stars is one of the ways Seeds strives to raise the additional $22 per day.
Each one of your votes for these fabulous stars makes it possible for many Pagosa Springs kids to get a high-quality early education. So if you’d like to support these stars and Seeds kids, go to growingseeds.org now and vote for your favorite star.
