The sixth annual Swinging with the Stars in Prince Albert exceeded expectations and brought in cash for needed services for Hope’s Home.
Competitors used everything from batons to Barbie and disco at the Prince Alert Exhibition Centre on Saturday.
This year’s Judge’s Choice Award winners were the team of professional dancer and Family Literacy Coordinator Kara Thorpe and Colette Harnett the Assistant Manager of Arbor Memorial.
Hope’s Home CEO Lisa Wyatt said that the fundraiser is an important one for the organization.
“It helps keep our programs running,” Wyatt said. “There’s an increased cost to everything going on right now. Everybody feels it personally (and) as a non-profit, we feel it too.
“The service we provide for families is to take that load off, to be able to take that break and really have that reassurance that they have those partners.”
Local celebrities were paired with professional dancers for Prince Albert’s sixth annual Swinging with the Stars fundraiser. The six dance teams raised more than $124,000 combined on the evening. Wyatt said that total does not include all fundraising initiatives. The official fundraising totals will not be available for approximately a week.
Hope’s Home Prince Albert is an organization that provides care for children with complex medical needs, their siblings and typically developing children in the community. They provide daycare, early learning and development programming, respite services, supportive living and transition care between the hospital and a community home.
The event was not sold out this year, but the room was still packed.
“The energy here is always electric and fantastic,” Wyatt said. “That’s the best piece. It’s a fun night. What other fundraising event can you come to where it’s not necessarily all speeches. You get entertained while you’re here and we raise money for a really good cause.”
The room was also in for a challenge as the Regina Swinging with the Stars took place in February.
“We’re kind of going to see what Prince Albert can do and challenge against what Regina did here. Regina raised about $237,000, so we’re hoping we can be close to that,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt said that the fun aspect was important and it also brings together the community.
“We get to bring community people who may not know who we are. They get to learn about us, and they get to go tell their network people about us. Again, it’s just them going out and being kids and having fun. That’s a big part of what we do, and they get to be a part of that,” Wyatt said.
The event is supported by numerous dance organizations in Prince Albert including Bold Dance Productions, Prince Albert Dance Company and Ballet N’ All That Jazz.
“Everybody wants to keep coming back because even the people from the dance studio who are professional dancers, they have fun. They believe in our cause and having that community support is what allows us to do this year after year,” Wyatt said.
Thorpe and Colette Harnett did a baton twirling dance and were surprised to win the Judge’s Choice.
“I said we’re not going to win the money because we were up against some pretty big hitters,” Harnett said. “Our only chance is Judge’s Choice, but I have zero dance experience, so let’s hope for the best.”
Thorpe said that she knows how hard the dancers worked so to come out on top was quite a surprise.
“We’ve got the seasoned dancers that have been on the stage and we were doing something brand new that really hasn’t been brought to the stage before,” Thorpe said. “It could have really gone bad, but we made it work.”
Thorps said that they started practicing every second week in November and in the last month practiced weekly. Harnett said she watched TikToks for beginner dancers to train.
“And I would just sit in front of the TV and practice learning how to spin the baton. And then I was like, ‘if I can get the baton, that’s my emotional support system.’ And then the dancing we can figure out later,” Harnett said.
Thorpe said that they exchanged videos back-and-forth to gauge progress. Harnett also practiced in front of her children and husband to prepare.
“The first practice I taught her a bunch of just baton skills. Then she went back and practiced that, then came back and added the dance stuff,” Thorpe said.
Harnett said that she had start at the rudimentary level because she had no experience.
“I have no dance experience, no performance experience. I’m used to being behind the scenes, making sure everything runs smoothly,” Harnett said.
Thorpe said that she came to choose baton twirling because it is her first love.
“Dance was a package deal because you need the dance for the baton, but that’s what I competed as a teenager traveling to worlds doing that kind of stuff. It’s been interesting because I transitioned from that into gymnastics,” Thorpe said.
She explained that when she came to Prince Albert people only knew her as a gymnastics person and were surprised to learn how much other things she did.
Thorpe is happy to support Swinging with the Stars because she is a mother of three children with diverse needs who are graduates of Hope’s Home.
“From the beginning my kids they were some of the first few kids that came and joined in at Hope’s Home when it first opened and. I’ve actually known (founder) Jacquie (Tisher) from way back in Regina when she very, very first started her very first campaign from other interactions,” Thorpe said.
She said that supporting Hope’s Home in this way just made sense to her.
“And I firmly believe that without the support of Hope’s Home, I don’t know where we would have been as a family, given some of the crisis and things that we had gone through moving forward as our children developed. And so they are now six foot four, 18 year olds that are doing absolutely fantastic things,” Thorpe said.
“And I’m not sure that that trajectory would have been there without Hope’s Home.”
Thorpe said it was special to get the prize as such an advocate for the work that is done at Hope’s Home.
“For me, it was very important because they gave so much to me and my family to be able to give back to them,” Thorpe said.
Harnett said that she was just happy to be along for the ride.
“I always with work try to support community events and community. And so as I say, usually I’m behind the scenes. So now to be in front, I thought, you know what, they say growth happens most when you’re pushed out of your comfort zone,” Harnett said.
She said that she wanted to show her three young daughters that a person can be scared and still push through and achieve.
“And what better way to do all of that while also raising money to give back to a great cause,” Harnett said.
Dancers included Dr. Ashley Toporowski and Bethany Leachman, LJ Tyson and Tailyn Childress, Noelle Broda and Kim Schick, Devon Kirkland and Sara Stahl and Taryn Moe and Heather Mackie.
Premier Scott Moe brought greetings from the province of Saskatchewan and was there to watch his daughter Taryn.
Malcolm Jenkins and his Family Foundation were major sponsors, but Jenkins could not attend and was not a judge for the first time in the history of the event. Judges for this year were last year’s Judge’s Choice winners Brooklynn Valcourt and Jennifer Mauvieux along with former fundraising director Mickey MacGilvary.
The Malcolm Jenkins Family Foundation matched funds raised up to $40,000. The People’s Choice team of Broda and Schick raised $34,363. The funds raised was $124,205 by the dancers alone. Final fundraising numbers were not available.
Swinging with the Stars was emceed by former winner Deputy Police Chief Farica Prince and Brenner Holash, who won the People’s Choice Award in 2025.
Wyatt said that even though the show is flashy, Hope’s Home does not usually campaign in that manner.
“We’re going to talk a lot about tonight about us not having that flashy campaign and being able to keep up with what’s going on and really just having people resonate with what we do and the impact we make for our families,” Wyatt said.
Thorpe said that the community support shown for Swinging with the Stars is critical and important.
“As a family that has some of these neurodiverse children, to know that there’s that many people out here willing to come out and to support raising funds that help to support those children and get them the needs or the supports that they need,” Thorpe said.
“To know that there’s 400 people willing to come and hang out and do this kind of work. Usually you feel kind of in the corner and that, you’ve got the doctor’s appointments and you’ve got this and that and the other., so to see the community come together is important too.”
Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald
After the competition Judges, dancers and others posed for a photo at Swinging with the Stars at the Prince Albert Exhibition Centre on Saturday evening.
