Dish-Houston

Some of the Houston area’s local celebrities will be out in full force dancing in competition to support Halo House. Janet Randolph, newly crowned Mrs. United States, will present the evening’s awards.

Halo House Foundation is hosting its third annual “Houston Stars: Dancing for a Cause” gala on Saturday, October 12, 2013 at 6:15 p.m. at Bayou City Event Center. This year’s gala will feature dance performances from CBS Channel 11’s Katherine Whaley; The Amazing Race season seven winner, Uchenna Agu; The Honorable Marty McVey of McVey & Associates; Galveston Chamber of Commerce President, Gina Spagnola; Restaurant Owner Ray Salti and entrepreneur Hossein Zolfaghari.

The gala will be hosted by ABC 13’s Sonia Azad and Don Nelson. Previous winner of the dance competition, CBS Channel 11’s Meteorologist Chita Johnson will attend the gala and serve as a judge for the dance competition, along with J.J. Smith, Olga Johnson, and Dale Tyzkowski.

Proceeds will be used to provide temporary housing for blood cancer patients and caregivers receiving treatment at the Texas Medical Center. Founded in 2009, Halo House Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) public charity.  Halo House has provided over 5,000 days of housing to patients from 18 states and 3 countries.

Tickets are going fast! To reserve your tickets today, vote for your favorite dancer, or for more information on Halo House Foundation visit www.HaloHouseFoundation.org or call 713-665-8852.

Halo House Foundation had their first gala in November 2011 and to say it was a success would be an understatement. Set the scene at InterContinental Hotel near the Galleria and fill it with about 375 people. THEN give those folks something to cheer about and you get the picture!  

It was one of the most creative ways we've ever seen folks raise money! There were three ways the Celebrity dancers could win (and all raised money for the charity!) One was votes on line before the event. Each vote cost $1 with a minimum of $10. so all of the local personalities were scrambling telling everyone they knew to vote for them which not only raised money for the charity but got the word out about it in a huge way. Now the entire world knows about Halo House Foundation! Then all of the personalities tried to get their friends to buy tickets because they could also win by having the most votes as crowd favorite and last but not least was Judges favorite...mind you these judges were HUGE in the dancing world! Evelyn Leightman with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Corky Ballas with ABC's "Dancing with the Stars"!!

The evening started with Halo House supporters and friends dressed to the nines mingling among the amazing silent auction items then the entertainment started!

After two championship junior couples hit the dance floor, six fabulous teams of Professional Dancer/Local Celebrity dancers competed for three awards.  Judges Evelyn Leightman with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Corky Ballas with ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" selected Lori Freese (Publisher, Dish-Houston.com) and her partner Cristiano Callegari (Dance With Stars Studio) as their top choice.
A well deserved People's Choice Award went to Mark Holley (Executive Chef, Pesce restaurant) and his partner Maureen Brunetti (D'Amico Dance Studio). Lea DeMontrond was rewarded with the Brightest Star Award for raising the most money in the form of online votes prior to the event.  His sizzling dance partner was Katia Kuznetsova (Dance With Stars Studio). The other performances by Sara Torres, a Houston Dynamo Girl and her dance coach Suneth Jayamanna, Maria Todd, Houston's favorite radio DJ and her partner, Enzo Zappia (Dance With Stars Studio) and Kristine Mills, the Houston Press "Best Songwriter" danced to her own music with partner Raul Edwards (Strictly Street Salsa.)

The hot performances were followed by a live auction that had the room yelling and cheering! It was such a fun time for everyone that they will have a challenge topping it for next year's! By the way...this event brought in $150,000 for the Halo House Foundation with a profit of $109,000. WELL DONE!!
 

Photo Credit:

DISH Publisher Lori Freese has been honored with an invite to be one of the "Stars" for Halo House Foundation 's gala on November 5th at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Halo House Foundation is a non-profit organization serving people with blood cancers by mitigating a large portion of the financial burden associated with the cost of housing during the patient's stay in Houston.

They do this by providing a fully furnished apartment for $20 per day where the person and their family or caregiver can stay from two weeks to two months while receiving active treatment for their cancer.

Referrals to Halo House come from doctors, social workers, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Houston, and Houston's other charitable facilities.

So you can see why DISH wanted to be invloved...but there is another reason...Lori's dance partner! WOW!

Cristiano Callegariis a professional ballroom dancer and coach who helps his students and audience understand the realm of dance. Dance has been the main focus and passion of Cristiano’s life since the age of nine. Padova, a city in northern Italy, is where Cristiano began his training. From this beginning in Padova, Cristiano has received much recognition and fulfilled many opportunities. He pursued his training with the best coaches in the world and soon attained the Italian Ten Dance title for two consecutive years. After success on the competitive dance floor, the Italian Dance Federation requested that he and his partner would participate in the New Latin Expression. Cristiano also won the winning title on a televised ballroom show airing in Italy which led to his employment with the television company for choreography. The Italian Dance Federation also made Cristiano the teacher of  Italian DanceSport Syllabus because of his wisdom and artistry of the figures. Travel soon took Cristiano to southern Italy where he began to establish a substantial amount of business. Within a short time, twenty studios were spread throughout southern Italy. In addition to the dance studios, at this time Cristiano was traveling to Greece and Spain where he coached and judged competitions. Cristiano left a trace of his dance by forming the Mediterranean Open Championship. Cristiano had seen Ballroom dancing in Italy grow so much that he wanted to open new doors. He traveled to the United States in 2005 and immediately began to compete. 

He's absolutely amazing and can make anyone look like they've been dancing their entire lives!

Below is a sneak preview of Cristiano and Lori performing their routine on the Fox 26 Morning Show.

Dancing with 'Stars' for a Cause: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

If you want to see the entire performance...which is MUCH sexier than this made for tv performance, you can still buy tickets for the November 5th event by CLICKING HERE

If you can't attend the event, you can vote for your favorite "Star" and we're sure your fav is the Head DISH Lori Freese by CLICKING HERE  Every dollar goes straight to the Halo House Foundation AND you get a tax deductible receipt!

See you on the Dance floor DISHIES!