2023 Dancing with the Seymour Stars

Credit to: The Tribune | Erika Malone

Saturday night came to a close for Dancing with the Seymour Stars after $97,311.63 was raised to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Seymour and Seymour Main Street.

The annual event, which is now a decade old, has raised more than $1 million dollars thanks to those in the community, who have put it all on the line as dancers to provide entertainment and compete at dollar a vote to be selected the winner.

The winner of the 2023 Dancing with the Seymour Stars was Tom Gray and Randall Rust, runners-up were Dr. Jill Mikles and Allen Mikles and third place went to Nancy Rendon and Elmer Velasquez.

As community members mingled about at Celebrations in Seymour, a few of the contestants were preparing for the sold-out performance of their lifetime.

Michelle Stephens, who is a members relationship director with the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, said that she was ready to go.

“I feel great,” she said. “The first performance during the matinée show was a little nerve-wracking, but now that I got that under my belt, I feel good.”

Stephens said the experience has been wonderful especially working with her partner, Colin Smith, the airport manager at the Freeman Municipal Airport, whom she has never worked with before.

“I loved every single bit of it,” she said. “Just getting to know someone I have never known before and practicing together. It’s just been a fun experience.”

Stephens and Smith played the role as robbers dancing their way to steal the votes to the song “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish.

Stephens said Matt Nieman gave them the idea for the song and Katrina Hardwick helped them with the choreography. Hardwick with Darren Richey won the 2021 Seymour Dancing with the Stars.

“We put quite a bit of work into the routine,” she said. ” We worked with Katrina for four hours of practice three times a week and then this past week we practiced every day.”

Stephens said she looked forward to seeing everybody involved in the community supporting these organizations that make a great impact.

“Both of them are very near and dear to my heart so, I am very excited to see our community come out and support this and continue to make it bigger,” she said.

Full-time college student at IUPUI, Nancy Rendon, puts the finishing touches on her all pink outfit before she dances the night away for charity.

“I’m pretty pumped about tonight,” she said. “The first show helped get some of the nerves out and its a sold out show so I am excited to see everyone here.”

Rendon said finding time to practice for the routine with her partner, Elmer Velasquez, owner and barber at HairCuts 504, was somewhat stressful due to her busy schedule of classes and commuting back and forth.

“We probably only practiced our routine four or five times so, probably not as much as other couples did, but I think we got this,” she said.

Rendon and Velasquez knew they wanted to go with something trendy and with the “Barbie” movie taking the world by storm they decided that was a good option.

Dressed in pink from head to toe dancing to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” the couple received a great amount of applause.

“I am just excited to see everyone dance and come together for a good cause,” she said.

Tom Gray, co-owner of Vat & Barrel, and Randall Rust, owner and manager at Schwatzer’s German Restaurant, said they were excited to show the crowd their wild side.

“We have been friends for a couple of years now and it has been an awesome experience working together,” Rust said.

“I has all been so much fun I don’t want it to end,” Gray said.

Playing into their rebellious personalities, the couple dressed in leather and danced to “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood & The Destroyers.

“We like to live a little on the edge,” Gray said.

Gray said they practiced their routine every week for over a month and was successful in their fundraising efforts during a blind bourbon tasting at Vat & Barrel that raised about $7,000 in one night.

“I am just looking forward to making people smile and laugh tonight,” Gray said.

Rust said at the end of the day she was glad to be raising money for two amazing organizations.

Seymour Main Street’s Executive Director, Bri Roll, thanked community members for attending and offering their support. She also spoke about what Seymour Main Street does for the community.

“Downtowns are the heart of our community,” she said. “Seymour Main Street is committed to planning, promoting and preserving our historic downtown and bringing back that vibrancy to our community.”

Ryon Wheeler, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, also gave thanks to community members and spoke about the organization’s efforts in the community.

“Ten years ago when this event started the Boys and Girls Club was very different,” he said. “We were a single unit site serving about 75 kids a day here in Seymour. We are still Boys and Girls Club of Seymour, but we are much bigger.”

Currently, the Boys and Girls Club now has six sites, four being in Jennings County. The organization expanded into Brownstown at Brownstown Elementary School in 2021 and now serves around 500 kids per day.

“We are not housing kids we are changing their lives,” Wheeler said. “Your donations and what we do helps cover the cost. Thank you all for the support.”

Before the winners were announced, the Dancing with the Seymour Stars Committee awarded Bruce Wynn a limited edition Dancing with the Seymour Stars bourbon bottle courtesy of Vat & Barrel for starting the idea for the event a decade ago.

“The generosity of this community is amazing,” Wynn said. “Thank you all so much for coming every year and contributing to this each year.”

Gray and Rust gave some final thoughts after a round of applause was given for their victory.

“We are so excited and glad to have been a part of this,” Gray said after taking the top spot.

“So happy. I can’t believe it, and this was all for a great cause,” Rust said.