Kiss Come Dancing for WJR
Photogalleries
On Saturday night (17.1.09), World Jewish Relief (WJR) hosted its fourth annual Kiss Come Dancing Gala Extravaganza at the Park Lane Hilton hotel. A 600 strong audience came to offer their support, and a remarkable £200,000 was raised for WJR's Kiss for a Child Committee, which supports children's projects across Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
Eight volunteer participants had endured arduous training schedules for four months before taking to the dance floor with their professional dance partners. Following the judge's scores and audience votes, the judges announced their unanimous decision to name Mark Gershinson the winner of the KISS Competition 2009.
Brave 46 year old Mark Gershinson lives in Highgate with his wife and three children. An active supporter of many worth while charitable causes, Mark is a keen golfer and will even be representing Great Britain in the Maccabiah Games in Israel this year. Mark impressed the audience with his version of the Charleston with professional dancer Gillian Cook. Mark commented:
"It was a magical night; I loved every minute of it. I had a phenomenal amount of support from my wife, Amanda (who worked tirelessly to sell tickets), my 3 great kids, Max , Freddie and Abigail and 60 more family and friends. I put my all into it in training and on the night and the crescendo of noise when I entered the room was extremely uplifting. I have to say that my dance partner and teacher choreographed an amazing, fun and exciting charleston routine. I would like to commend all the committee who put such an amazing evening together with the lovely WJR staff."
Competing with Mark were Londoners Daniel Englender, Emma Gee, Zeddy Lawrence, Sarah Moss, Roberta Perlman and Michael Placks who all did their families proud overcoming nerves and wowing the audience.
The Kiss for a Child committee is headed by Jewish Princess Georgie Tarn. Georgie commented:
"It was amazing seeing such support for this worthy cause, filling the Park Lane Hilton was a dream come true. I would like to thank all the dancers for their hard work without which, this event couldn't take place. They are all stars. The committee and all the volunteers at WJR are heroes, and the icing on the cake was the audience who turned out to support the dancers, the committee and World Jewish Relief, which is phenomenal during the current economic climate. Thank you also to our compere for the evening, Nigel Risner."
Paul Anticoni, Chief Executive of World Jewish Relief said:
"I want to thank Georgie , her dedicated KISS Committee and all the dancers for their astounding work and amazing commitment to WJR. Their contribution has had a huge and overwhelmingly positive affect on thousands of Jewish families throughout Eastern Europe."
