Arthur Mur­ray Grand Rapids had a great time at the VAI fundraiser Fri­day, April 29th at the JW Mar­riott! With lots of danc­ing and even more fundrais­ing, “VARI Good Cause” was a very big suc­cess. Early esti­mates sug­gest that more than $50,000 was earned to advance can­cer research at the unique and wholly local Van Andel Research Insti­tu­tion. Kudos to our fab­u­lous celebrity dancers who stud­ied in earnest to put on an excel­lent show. Each was a win­ner in our books!

In the end, David Van Andel, VAI Chair­man and CEO, took top adju­di­cated and fundrais­ing votes for his inim­itable Fox Trot with Arthur Mur­ray pro Lau­ren Link. We sus­pect David was greatly assisted by his pro­mo­tional genius (see cutout photo!) and his inspired Moon­walk. Rachel Mraz, VP at Mer­ril Lynch’s DeVries, Free­burg & Mraz Group, took top Fan Award with her stun­ning, ele­gant per­for­mance of a sweep­ing tra­di­tional ball­room dance. Arthur Mur­ray pro Justin Kaiser was impressed by her dis­ci­plined prac­tice. Each of our con­tes­tants was out­stand­ing, so spe­cial thanks to Bill Simon­son; Ellen Tai­lor; Val Lego and Patrick Miles Jr. as well!

The piece-de-resistance was spe­cial guest pro­fes­sional dancers Edyta Sli­win­ska and Alec Mazo, the hus­band and wife team that daz­zled on Danc­ing With The Stars. Their per­for­mances were sim­ply breathtaking!

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