AROUND TOWN: Dancing good for heart -- and the Heart Ball

It has been around for 29 years, but the annual Heart Ball on Feb. 11 was as fresh and lively as a newcomer, a rapid-fire explosion of fun.

The black-tie crowd responded with more than $225,000  to go toward “building healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke,” said an ecstatic executive director Leslie McGinn.

All the regular gala elements were there. Cocktail reception, check. Silent and live auctions, check. Sit-down dinner, check. Dancing, check.

It didn’t stop there. Add to that a flash mob (Flash Mob International) twisting and rocking through an evolution of dance. And a celebrity “Dancing with your Heart.”

Just picture “Baby, You’ve Got What it Takes” banker Tom Naughton as a swing dancer. Sultry enchantress Margaret Sabin, president/CEO of Penrose-St. Francis Health System, turned it on with a cha-cha. (Psst, she’s next year’s Heart Ball chair, so expect the unexpected again.)

And who was that man in a hoodie masquerading as the Pink Panther? It was Gary Peacock, usually the businesslike market manager of the area Wal-Marts, as he and daughter Stacey turned it on with a fox trot.

In her own Facebook words, fashion writer Tanya Bell and husband Tommy “T.C.” Dantzler (in a fro) “killed it” with a disco dance to “Car Wash.” Wait until their kids see the photos from this one!

Senior financial planner Clarissa Hobson, former president of the Junior League, dispelled all rumors about financial people being stuffy as she wowed the crowd with a swing dance.

The celebs were trained over several weeks by Brad and Lori Ackerman of Dance Colorado, who stayed late to dance with gala guests as well.

Not to be left out was emcee Warren Epstein, who performed something he called a half break dance.

Why there’s a Heart Ball at all was brought into focus through the stories by co-chairs Dave and Ann Briggs and the Blakeley family.

One day 10 years ago, Dave, feeling “a little off,” walked in the door at his home and his daughter spotted he was “in distress.” Off to the hospital for an angiogram and stents he went, and “it changed my life,” said Dave, heading for the dance floor with his wife.

Perhaps Brandon Blakeley wasn’t physically on the stage with his family, but the little guy was indeed there as they told his story for the first time. Mom and dad Kevin and Mychele Blakeley and sisters Taylor and Ella, holding balloons, shared how Brandon was born in 2003 with a congenital heart defect and received a heart transplant. All boy, he played T-ball, drove his sisters crazy, went to first grade and took swimming lessons. In 2009 he took a downturn and he died. “His life was truly a gift,” said his mom.

At Brandon’s request, he and his family had always celebrated anniversaries — his birth birthday and his heart birthday — with a balloon release. Brandon wanted the balloons to go to the babies in heaven, “because they don’t have balloons in heaven,” he explained. Now his family has added another anniversary, “Brandon’s passing,” and send balloons upward to him, too.

Another touching note was emcee Shannon Brinias sharing that her 11-year-old niece, also born with a heart defect, is now a two-month survivor after a long-awaited heart transplant.

Sponsors of the Heart Ball included Colorado Financial Group Inc.; Allen and Holly Oliphant; Interim Healthcare; Penrose-St. Francis Health Services; Memorial Health System; Front Range Orthopaedics; PENRAD Imaging and ADD STAFF, Inc.

Heading up the creative planning committees were Mark Brown, Joan Klein, Laura Muir, Laura Neumann, Gayle Novotny, Justin Burns, Shelly Vanderlinde, Gwen Happ, Vickie Drew, Julie Armstrong, Rita Burns, Susanne Arens, Bill Lueck and Wendy Franklund.

PHOTO GALLERY here at ColoradoSprings.com.