The 3rd Annual “Dancing With Our Community Stars” competition is waltzing its way back to Morgantown this May as the Miss West Virginia Scholarship Organization put its spin on the popular TV show “Dancing With the Stars.”

The goal is to provide young women with more than $35,000 in college scholarship money at the 2010 Miss West Virginia Scholarship Pageant in June.

Celebrity couples from throughout the community will pair up and take to the dance floor at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 1st at De Lazy Lizard on High Street. High-profile contestants include Bill Byrne, Morgantown mayor; Rebecca Durst, former Mountaineer Mascot; Jared Ramsey and Katie Gatian, reigning WVU Homecoming King and Queen; Ron Cheng and Erica Rogers, WVU Student Government Association; to name just a few. The couples will be judged on categories such as content, execution, showmanship, while money raised and guests attending will count in the selection of the winners.

“As the partner of Mel Moraes who won this competition last year, the pressure is on,” Byrne said. “If we don’t win, everyone will rightly say the mayor made me do it.”

“Trading my buckskins for dancing shoes will be a new challenge for me,” Durst said. “But I am looking forward to dancing with my partner, James Abel, a physician at WVU Hospitals.”

Last year’s event raised more than $10,000 in scholarship money for the Miss West Virginia Scholarship Organization, an official preliminary to the Miss America Pageant – the world’s leading provider of scholarships for women. Miss West Virginia has been giving young women throughout the state the gift of a college education for over 68 years.

“Dancing With Our Community Stars is a wonderful event for us,” said Executive Director and former Miss West Virginia, Leah Summers. “It has allowed us to grab on to the newest reality craze while allowing our organization to work together with fantastic talent from our area, all while raising scholarship dollars.”

In addition to the local celebrities, some titleholders from across the state who are competing for the title of 2010 Miss West Virginia and 2010 Miss West Virginia’s Outstanding Teen will be in attendance. The event will be hosted by former Morgantown Mayor Ron Justice and April Kaull, WBOY-TV anchor.

Tickets are available at http://www.misswestvirgina.org for $25 per person. The evening will begin with heavy hors d’oeuvres at 4 p.m., with the dancing competition beginning at 5 p.m. The dance floor will be open, along with a D.J., for guests to dance following the competition. For more information, please contact Miss West Virginia board members Sonja Wilson at Sonja.Wilson@mail.wvu.edu or 304-216-4295 or Ashley Workman at 304-685-4937.

-WVU-

sw/04/26/10

CONTACT: Sonja Wilson
304-293-2702; Sonja.Wilson@mail.wvu.edu

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