Church, Ministry Kick Up Heels at Fundraiser (Photos)

Amateur and professional dancers hit the floor at the Tinley Park Convention Center on March 8 to raise money for worthy causes and celebrate an anniversary.

Family Harvest Church and Robb Thompson Ministries held the third annual Dancing for the Stars fundraiser, an event that generates donations for clean water projects, dental clinics and orphanages in Uganda, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, South Africa and India. This year, the dance contest also help celebrate the 30th anniversary between then church and the ministry.

The competition pairs professionally trained local dancers from Fred Astaire Dance Studios with amateur dancers, who train for 12 weeks and represent one of the fundraising projects. Dancers are judged on their performance scores and how much they generated in donations.

Here are the results from the event:

• Winner: Steve Adalpe, who represented Never Again orphanage in Kampala, Uganda. He didn't have the best dance score, but he earned the most donations. Adalpe, 26, works as technical trainer for research at the University of Chicago.
• Runner-up: Ana Martinez, who represented a project in Mexico and the church's mission team. Martinez, 45, had the best dance score of the night. She also has been on the church's staff since 1999.

Check the article's media gallery for photos from the Dancing for the Stars event.

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