This year’s ABN AMRO Dancefloor Challenge raised over £12,000, which will be split between Headway Guernsey and the Guernsey Amateur Dancesport Association (GADA).
The annual event, which sees local personalities dance with some of Guernsey’s best ballroom dancers, involved 14 stars from Channel Islands TV, radio and businesses. Laura Tardiff from Louvre Fund Services and her partner Marc Griffiths were crowned overall winners of this year’s ABN AMRO Dancefloor Challenge.
Organiser Jamie Le Tissier said this year’s total means approximately £130,000 has been raised since the Dancefloor Challenge started 12 years ago.
‘The annual event is going from strength to strength. Credit goes to the participants for taking up the challenge, learning a new skill and putting in hours of work to create an entertaining show for the audience, whilst raising a significant amount of money for charity,’ he said.
Philippa Stahelin, executive director at Headway Guernsey, was delighted to be asked to take part in the event and represent the charity.
‘We are so grateful to ABN AMRO for the £6,500 donation from the Dancefloor Challenge. The funds will go towards developing our outreach programme, where we help new members with strategies and skills to enable them to live as independent a life as possible. The funds will also help run our family support programme, where family members can be helped as they come to terms with and deal with their new life post brain injury. It’s so important to raise awareness of our service and the needs of islanders who are living with the effects of serious brain injury,’ she said.
Lesley Le Tissier, Chair of the GADA said: ‘We rely on the Dancefloor Challenge funds to keep the GADA going each year. Not only does it help pay rent for the halls we practice in, but it also enables us to bring professional teachers and examiners over from the UK. Eventually, we’d like to be able to fund our dancers to compete in the UK. Without the contribution from the event, we would need to raise membership and class costs considerably to get by.’
ABN AMRO’s Country Executive, Pim van den Heuvel said: ‘I’m thrilled the event was a success and it’s fantastic that we managed to increase the total amount raised for charity this year. I’m very grateful to all of the organisers for their consistent hard work in making the Dancefloor Challenge happen every year. It’s become a real highlight in the Guernsey calendar, which we’ve been proud to sponsor.’
