A stellar group of community leaders stepped onto the dance floor for Raise the Roof’s sixth annual Gala of Stars: Dancing for the Cause that took place on November 13, 2020. Raise the Roof defines stars as community leaders passionate about making the world a better place. Our 2020 stars accepted the invitation to take to the ballroom floor in a time that called for reimagining how to share the dancing fun and goodness that has become Raise the Roof’s signature. With hearts as determined as ever that there be dancing and opportunities for families to build and own homes, Raise the Roof, Arthur Murray Guilford, and eighteen community leader stars created a must-watch, must-celebrate, online event. All were invited to watch, cheer, and “vote” for one, some, or all of the dance couples, and many joined in the fun, community, and building.

The group of stars below led the 2020 gala adventure:

Heather Arcovitch and Barb Black
Shannon and Bob Duncanson
CJ and Bill Gladstone
Brenda and Andrew Graminski
Pam and David Kadamus
Chloé Maynard and Charles Maynard
Becca and Mark Mitchell
Maggie Moffett and Tom Ferrell
Madison Nophsker and Trevor Boyaj

The stars learned choreographed ballroom routines during ten private lessons provided by Arthur Murray Guilford, Raise the Roof’s Event Partner. You can still catch the amazing fun, dancing, and goodness here. There were dancing stars, judges and awards for best dance performances, and $103,000+ were shared for the building of homes.

Heather Arcovitch and Barb Black are Raise the Roof’s 2020 Shoreline Stars! They inspired the gathering of $17,230 in “votes”/dollars to help families build homes. Congratulations! Applause! And hearts filled with gratitude!

Gratitude and congratulations to Pam and David Kadamus (below), our runners-up for the title of 2020 Shoreline Stars, with $16,860 “votes”/dollars shared and gathered! Thank you, Pam and David, for the goodness that rained down, and yes…there was confetti and a saxophone break.

And a top-of-New Haven shout-out, please, to Maggie Moffett and Tom Ferrell (below) for gathering $14,369 to empower families to build and own homes. Beautifully done!

Cheers and congratulations to CJ and Bill Gladstone (below) for winning the first-place trophy awarded by our celebrity judges for best dance performance of the event.

Becca and Mark Mitchell (below) danced the West Coast Swing with choreography and a mid-dance costume change—watch the video—that told their Habitat story and earned the second place trophy for best dance performance.

Thank you to all of our stars for putting their hearts into dancing to help families build and own homes.

Chloé and Charles Maynard (below left) and Shannon and Bob Duncanson (below right)

Brenda and Andrew Graminski (below)

Madison Nophsker and Trevor Boyaji (below)

Our Gala of Stars tradition is to gather in person to celebrate, watch, cheer, vote, and then…we ALL hit the dance floor to strut our own stuff. In 2020, our extraordinary gala event partners at Arthur Murray Guilford put together some dance steps for all of us to learn, dance, and create an online flash mob so that we could dance together apart. Watch our community’s dance moves here.