Local Museum Gets A Boost From Dancing With Our Stars

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The Great River Children's Museum is one of the charities benefiting from this year's Women's Fund Presents Dancing With Our Stars Live! event.

Great River Vice President of Operations Jon Noyes has been selected to be one of this year's community dancers. He is raising money for the teaching kitchen at the museum.

We've been doing some programming, and what I'm really hoping to do is to raise money to help stock that.  Get more equipment, help fund programming, things that we can do to help strengthen families and build community connections through food.

Noyes has been paired with professional dancer Janell Missler. They are working on a salsa dance for the show. He says he's having fun even though dancing is not his strong suit.

My background in dance is pretty limited.  When my daughter and I used to do community theater together, and we'd do musicals, I could sing, but I couldn't dance, so they would put me in the back for production numbers.  So this is taking me outside my comfort zone.  But I'm having a ton of fun with it.

He says they've been raising money for the competition with the help of the museum's fans.

If you come to see us at the children's museum, one of the things you'll see is a life-sized cardboard cutout of me.  It moves around the museum every day.  There's a QR code on it and some information about the event.

Noyes says the Great River Children's Museum has been a popular place in its first year. They are booked out for field trips through the end of May. They are planning the first annual birthday party on June 10th.

Get our free mobile app

Previous Stories:
Read More: Jennifer Lamb Randolph Joins 'Dancing With Our Stars' Event |
Read More: Sauk Rapids Teacher Katie White Schad Dances For Local Arts |
Read More: Mattea Voss Dances For Youth Basketball Scholarships In St. Cloud |
Read More: Local Leader Paul Wirth Joins Dancing With Our Stars Live |

The winning dancer gets an additional $15,000 for their charity, and all of the dancers will take home money for the charity they've selected. Sixty percent of their final score is based on how much money they raise, and 40 percent is based on their dance score. The live event is on Monday, June 8th, at the College of St. Benedict.

Tickets are on sale now.